Resistor Clock
Ohms tell the time
How to read it
Point at a step, or tap it, to light up that part of the clock.
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Each band is one digit of HH:MM.
Right now
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Black=0, brown=1, red=2, orange=3, yellow=4.
Right now
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Green=5, blue=6, violet=7, gray=8, white=9.
Right now
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17:35 reads brown-violet-orange-green.
Right now
The story
Around 1930 the Radio Manufacturers Association backed a color code so tiny resistors could show their value without printed digits; the familiar bands became its standard by 1941. Here the four bands encode HH:MM.
- Year
- c. 1930
- Place
- United States
- Creator
- RMA (radio industry)
Fun fact
Electronics students memorize the sequence with mnemonics — most of them unprintable.
