About resistors

There are many different types of electrical components.  Shown below is a photograph of part of a circuit board.  On this circuit board are many electrical components including some resistors.

 There are resistors, capacitors, diodes and integrated circuits.  Using plated copper and solder on the reverse side of the board, these components are interconnected and when a supply voltage is provided, these components can interact.  Electrical engineers need to know how to design larger circuits like this and to control those interactions to achieve some purpose.

        In this lesson you are going to learn about the simplest sort of electrical component, the resistor.  What you learn about resistors is a starting point.  That knowledge helps you as you begin to learn about all of the other kinds of electrical/electronic components.  Still, although resistors are basic elements, they occur everywhere.  On the board below, all of the resistors are marked with a yellow dot.