modified 9 years ago

Illustration of resistivity and resistance.

00:30:49

It's a 2d simplification of the 3d phenomenon.  The resistors represent uniform blocks of a material with a resistivity of 1 ohm per block. The different circuits represent samples of this material.  The simulation shows how the size and shape of a conductor affect its resistance and current characteristics.

published 9 years ago

2ctiby

9 years ago

How does the top right and bottom left block represent 1 ohm total for each?

mtobot

9 years ago

If resistivity remains constant, then the total resistance of a conductor increases proportionally as its length increases. But the resistance also DECREASES in proportion to any increase in "width" (cross-sectional area actually, but again this is a 2d simplification). When you increase the "width" AND length of the conductor simultaneously, these two changes in resistance cancel each other out, and total resistance remains constant. Pretty neat right?

2ctiby

9 years ago

The idea there sounds pretty good, but you refer to each of the blocks as being 1 ohm total each. From my calculations the top right and bottom left blocks do not result in one ohm total for each.

maxmax_66

9 years ago

@2ctiby. If I'm not mistaken, his intention was having the individual 1 ohm resistors represent the resistivity of a unit volume of the chosen conductor which here is referred to as a 'block' and not the resistor matrices as a whole, which I assume represent the resistance of variable lengths and widths of conductive material.

2ctiby

9 years ago

Ahh...that clarifies it for me ...I mis-understood the block reference...thanks guys, nice article.

mtobot

9 years ago

Just to confirm, the comment by maxmax_66 is absolutely correct. I apologize for not explaining the illustration more clearly. I didn't realize the ambiguity of my original description. Thanks for the clarification, Max! :)

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