Resistor

What is Resistor?

A basic electronic component that provides a fixed, known opposition to current flow, most often identified by a series of colored bands printed on its body rather than a numeric label. It's the component that keeps an LED from burning itself out.

The five clues

Engineerdle #51 described Resistor with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01A component whose value is often readable from a series of colored bands, not printed digits.
2. 02Its entire job is to oppose current by a known, fixed amount.
3. 03Pair it with Ohm's Law and you can predict exactly how it'll behave in a circuit.
4. 04It protects an LED from drawing more current than the LED can survive.
5. 05The basic electronic component that limits current flow by a fixed amount, often marked with colored bands.