Resistors were introduced as representing a load, or energy consuming device. Resistors are common in electrical circuits. Their composition was discussed in the links. Carbon resistors have a color code that indicates their resistance and tolerance. Tolerance is the range of deviation from the indicated value that is tolerated and is generally plus or minus 5 or 10 percent.
Series resistances all experience the same current and divide the source voltage among themselves.
Series resistive circuits are called voltage dividers . Parallel resistive circuits are called current dividers . Voltage Divider Circuits Below is an example of a voltage divider network containing three resistors. The sum of the voltages dropped across the resistors is equal to the source voltage. The objective for the analysis of a simple voltage divider is to determine the voltage drop and current flow for each resistor.