Resistance

Resistance

A resistor functionally restraints the electric current in a circuit. The particular amount of opposition to current is known as the resistance of the resistor. The unit by which the level of resistance is expressed is Ohm’s Law. The resistive material put to use and the dimensions need to be taken into consideration whenever you want to determine the level of resistance.

Resistors may be made of a range of materials, and several of these materials are put to use for a long time. Inexperienced constructors in the past used a pencil-line on solid wood as a high value resistor, working with washers and bolts to make contact with the lines' ends. The resistance of the mixture of graphite (a conductor) and clay (a non-conductor) which were used to make the pencil determined the resistance of the line. The harder the pencil's rating (meaning a higher clay content) the greater the amount of resistance of a line. Resistors of relatively low resistance were made by twisting covered metal wire (making use of cotton or silk as insulators) around a covered rod.

The contribution that the material makes to the resistance of a resistor is measured by its resistivity.

When you like to determine the resistance of a resistor, the material dimension contribution is considered and the cross-sectional area is inverse proportional to the amount of resistance, the larger the area, the lower the resistance. Assuming that the sample has a uniform shape, the formula R = p * l / a denotes the material resistance where p (Greek rho) represents resistivity, l represents the length and a is used to indicate the area of the cross-section.

Resistivity is a constant for a material, not affected by proportions. The units of resistivity are ohms x metres (ohms multiplied by metres, not ohms per metre) and excellent conductors for instance metals have values which are small, in the order of 10^-8 Ohms. The values of insulators can be quite high, in the order of 10^10 Ω or even more, making resistivity the most obvious and striking measure of the distinctions in conductivity between these kinds of materials. There are a few metals that have no resistance when the temperatures happen to be close to absolute zero (OK) . They are referred to as superconductors, and are beyond the scope of this short article.