Experiment 3: Your first circuit

The Pregame

So this chapter gets you acquainted with resistors.  Resistance is defined by how much voltage in volts it takes to attain a 1 amp current flow through a circuit.  The unit of measurement in a resistor is in ohms.  (Simplified it can be considered how easily electrons can flow through a material)

For example: If it takes 400 volts to attain a 1 amp current flow in a circuit the resistance will be 400 ohms(written as 400Ω).  You can verify this by using ohm's law. V=I/R
R=VIR=(400 volts)(1 amp)R=400Ω
This is also why materials fall under two categories, conductors and insulators.  Conductors allow electrons to flow through them easily, thus they have a low resistance.  Insulators do not have many free electrons in them to allow for much movement, thus they have a high resistance.

Now take note the small rainbows of color on the resistors.  For the first and second stripe each band color represents a different number.  The third stripe represents the amount of zeros the amount has.  The possible silver/gold stripe at the end indicates the tolerance, or how accurate the resistor is within a certain percent.  

	1st/2nd Stripe	3rd Stripe
Black	0
Brown	1	0
Red	2	00
Orange	3	000
Yellow	4	0000
Green	5	00000
Blue	6	000000
Violet	7	0000000
Grey	8	000000000
White	9	__0000000000

Tolerance

Silver 5%

Gold 10%

Now shut up and make your circuit

Get a 6V battery carrier and attach the red wire (representing positive) to the LONGER end of the LED.  Attach the black(or blue) wire (representing negative) to one side of the resistor (it doesn't matter which side of the resistor) and the other end to of the resistor the shorter end of the LED.  Put the batteries in the battery carrier, sit and stare at your light.

RESULTS: One LED light lit.  

After Experiment Duties: Show your friends and brag to them on how much a hipster nerd you are.  Stare at your light for a solid 10 seconds and soak in the light of winning.  

References: Since I am a noob at this I have to thank this site ----> http://www.explainthatstuff.com/resistors.html for helping me out.