In Reply to: 4 pi series/ parallel resistor headache posted by tdc on February 10, 2002 at 09:16:20:
Ok, take TWO of your 16 ohm resistors, and lay them side by side. Twist the very ends of their leads together, just a turn or two. It helps to hold the two wires near the ends, and use a second pair of needlenose to gently twist the exposed ends together. Solder the ends.Take a second pair, and repeat the above steps.
Now take the first pair, and place it end to end with the second pair. One end of each pair will get soldered together. Measure the two free ends left...eureka, a 16 ohm,48 watt resistor.
Yes, feel free to connect them as two 16 ohm resistors in series first, then you are effectively now combining two 32 ohm ones in parallel to get back to 16 ohms. Same result either way. Sam
maybe I need to mention some guidelines?
1) two resistors in series will add, ie two 10 ohm resistors in series equals 20 ohms.
2) two resistors in parallel(sidexside) will be less, oversimplified, two 10 ohms in parallel will equal 5 ohms. easy to figure AS LONG AS the two R's are the same.
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