A resistor is identified by its pattern of color of bands. There are 4, 5 and 6 band resistors. To calculate the resistance of a resistor, you can select the appropriate color bands in the above
resistor color code calculator.
How to calculate the resistance?
Just have a look to the resistor color code chart below and see the calculations, how the resistance value is calculated according to this chart.
Calculating resistance for a 6-band resistor
![](https://www.electronics-lab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/6-band-resistance-calculati.png)
Where,
‘
a’ represents the 1
st significant digit, which is the first band color of resistor.
‘
b’ represents the 2
nd significant digit, which is the second band color of resistor.
‘
c’ represents the 3
rd significant digit, which is the third band color of resistor.
‘
d’ represents the 4
th significant digit, which is the fourth band color of resistor and this is the multiplier value used in formula.
‘
e’ represents the 5
th significant digit, which is the fifth band color of resistor and this is the tolerance value of resistor.
‘
f’ represents the 6
th significant digit, which is the sixth band color of resistor and this is the temperature coefficient value of resistor.
6-Band |
Name |
Description |
1st Band |
a |
1st significant digit |
2nd Band |
b |
2ndsignificant digit |
3rd Band |
c |
3rdsignificant digit |
4th Band |
d |
Multiplier |
5th Band |
e |
Tolerance |
6th Band |
f |
Temperature Coefficient |
Let’s take an example of a 6-band resistor with the colors given in the above image (brown, black, orange, red, gold and brown).
So according to the formula the resistance will be: 103 * 100 = 10300 Ohms with 5% tolerance and 100 ppm/K temperature coefficient value.