What is a Resistor?

It is a electronics component that is used in the circuit to reduce the flow of current. It acts like a bumpy road for a motor vehicle, It cuts down on the speed of the electrons and reduces their flow in the circuit.

Let us connect the most Basic Circuit as a beginner, to understand the concepts of a working resistor.

These resistors are everywhere in all our electronic components including the device that you are using right now. They are used to maintain the voltage and control the current in the circuit. Let us find out how the the resistor behaves as per Ohms Law.

“Ohm’s law states that the voltage across a conductor is directly proportional to the current flowing through it, provided all physical conditions and temperatures remain constant.“

Let’s take a 9V battery and connect it to turn on a Light-Emitting Diode (LED). If you connect the battery directly to the LED, the huge amount of current will flow through the LED! Much more that of which the LED can handle. So the LED will become hot and burn in a fraction of a second. So how do we save the LED? Put a resistor in series with the LED as shown in the circuit diagram , in this way you can control how much current is going through the LED. And in this case the the resistor is called the current limiting resistor.

For all the young enthusiasts who would like to experiment the ohms law circuit on the breadboard. Connect the circuit and replace them with different resistors you will notice that the intensity of light reduces.

“I have learned identifying components back in college. I was always curious as a kid, and had explored what was inside my toys. Back there in my college i was learning about the things i had seen inside my toys. Lets learn about them in the most simple way…..”