In resistor color coding, what does the third color band indicate?

• A. Tolerance
• B. Multiplier
• C. Temperature coefficient
• D. Manufacturer

Answer: (B)

In resistor color coding, the value is built from digits and a scale factor, and the third color band is the multiplier. It tells you how many zeros to add to the first two digits, effectively multiplying those digits by a power of ten to give the resistance in ohms. For example, with bands that give digits 1 and 0 and a multiplier of 100, you get 10 × 100 = 1000 ohms (the final band would indicate tolerance). The multiplier mapping uses colors to powers of ten, so the third band is the one that converts the two leading digits into the actual resistance value.