Which end of the resistor is up?

[Andre Jute]

About twenty years ago a fellow who wrote DIY articles for one of the
UK audio mags, maybe his name was Andy Bland, made a joke: "Which end
of the resistor is positive?" The magazine got a lot of replies from
people claiming to be qualified in electronics telling him which end of
the resistor is positive...

The internet is a *lot* like that. Except more so.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
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Andrew Jute McCoy, as the jurors in "Alice":

>blathered herein to see what it remembered of its name, lest it forget entirely before the end of the day.


Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

[Sander deWaal]

"Andre Jute" > said:


>About twenty years ago a fellow who wrote DIY articles for one of the
>UK audio mags, maybe his name was Andy Bland, made a joke: "Which end
>of the resistor is positive?" The magazine got a lot of replies from
>people claiming to be qualified in electronics telling him which end of
>the resistor is positive...

>The internet is a *lot* like that. Except more so.


Recently, on the forum where I moderate, a question was asked by some
person that he "possibly damaged his DVD player by inserting the fuse
the wrong way?".............

Turned out his player got hit with a thunderstrike, he replaced the
blown fuse but it went out right away with a "POOF"! ;-)

Some capacitors, on the other hand, *do* have a preferred direction
(and I don't mean electrolytics).
You'll notice on some foil caps that one end is branded with a line of
some sort.
That is the outer part of the foil, forming a kind of "screen" around
the cap, and should be ground side in bypass situations, or connected
to the side with the lowest impedance in coupling arrangements.

--
"Due knot trussed yore spell chequer two fined awl miss steaks."

[Andre Jute]

Sander DeWaal wrote:
> "Andre Jute" > said:
>
>
> >About twenty years ago a fellow who wrote DIY articles for one of the
> >UK audio mags, maybe his name was Andy Bland, made a joke: "Which end
> >of the resistor is positive?" The magazine got a lot of replies from
> >people claiming to be qualified in electronics telling him which end of
> >the resistor is positive...
>
> >The internet is a *lot* like that. Except more so.
>
>
> Recently, on the forum where I moderate, a question was asked by some
> person that he "possibly damaged his DVD player by inserting the fuse
> the wrong way?".............
>
> Turned out his player got hit with a thunderstrike, he replaced the
> blown fuse but it went out right away with a "POOF"! ;-)
>
> Some capacitors, on the other hand, *do* have a preferred direction
> (and I don't mean electrolytics).
> You'll notice on some foil caps that one end is branded with a line of
> some sort.
> That is the outer part of the foil, forming a kind of "screen" around
> the cap, and should be ground side in bypass situations, or connected
> to the side with the lowest impedance in coupling arrangements.
>
> --
> "Due knot trussed yore spell chequer two fined awl miss steaks."

Actually, it is also good practice to align resistors so that the
tolerance bands all point in the same direction, so that they can be
easily read without reorienting the board or whole heavy amp each time.
-- Andre Jute

[Eeyore]

Andre Jute wrote:

> Actually, it is also good practice to align resistors so that the
> tolerance bands all point in the same direction

I think it's good practice to align the 'top' of a resistor with the 'up'
direction so that the electrons won't get ****ed at you and sound funny !

Most ppl don't know this.

Graham