The value of a resistor is marked on its body using color bands. The majority of the resistors contain four bands but there are also some resistors that have five and six bands. The following picture shows what a resistor with four bands looks like:
With a four-band resistor the first two bands, from left to right, indicate the resistor's value. The third band is the multiplier and the fourth band is the tolerance. Resistors that have five bands use the first three bands to indicate the resistor's value, then the fourth band is the multiplier and the fifth band is the tolerance. The following table shows the color values:
Color |
Value |
Multiplier |
Tolerance |
Black |
0 |
1 |
|
Brown |
1 |
10 |
|
Red |
2 |
100 |
|
Orange |
3 |
1K |
|
Yellow |
4 |
10K |
|
Green |
5 |
100K |
|
Blue |
6 |
1M |
|
Violet |
7 |
10M |
|
Grey |
8 |
100M ... |