Electronic Color Code - Resistor, Capacitor and Inductor
An electronic color code is used to indicate the values or ratings of electronic components, usually for resistors, but also for capacitors, inductors, diodes and others. A separate code, the 25-pair color code, is used to identify wires in some telecommunications cables. Different codes are used for wire leads on devices such as transformers or in building wiring.
A useful mnemonic matches the first letter of the color code, in numeric order. Here are two that includes tolerance codes gold, silver, and none:
- Bad beer rots our young guts but vodka goes well – get some now.
- Black Brown ROY of Great Britain had a Very Good Wife who wore Gold and Silver Necklace.
The colors are sorted in the order of the visible light spectrum: red (2), orange (3), yellow (4), green (5), blue (6), violet (7). Black (0) has no energy, brown (1) has a little more, white (9) has everything and grey (8) is like white, but less intense.