Resistor Colour Codes - 2 Sorts

Hi,

Has anyone come across this before ? ( see below )

It seems very confusing !!


Andy
 

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You are probably reading to much into it Andy. These four band codes have been around for ages... decades 🙂

Traditional three band 10k = a one, a nought and a three 1,0,000

and four band = a one, a nought, another nought and two noughts 1,0,0,00
 
The first one has 2 significant digits to specify value, and one digit to specify the power of 10 of the multiplier. Second one uses 3 significant digits to specify value and one more digit to specify the power of 10 multiplier. First one is used on carbon comp resistors, while the second is used on film resistors in order to show more precision (another significant digit) in the value.
 
I still don't know why they don't print numbers... 103 = 10000 like on SMD parts 🙂 I can never see the colours on blue resistors. That's how I ended up with 1k on left and 2k on right. brown and red look the same on blue to my eyes.
 
I have some corning resistors with numbers rather than colors.
When I was a kid in High School I was lucky enough to have an electronics class with an electronics department.
Every few years a local defense contractor would dump a load of assorted parts on the department head.
He let me have first go at the good stuff. I still have piles of corning resistors. 1/4% tolerance capacitors from component research. Fun stuff.
 
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