EIA Standard Color Mnemonic
Electrical engineers and students recall the sequence via the classic mnemonic: "Bad Boys Rip Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly" (Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Gray, White).
Complete Resistor Color Band Table
| Color | Digit | Multiplier | Tolerance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 0 | ×1 (10⁰) | , |
| Brown | 1 | ×10 (10¹) | ±1% |
| Red | 2 | ×100 (10²) | ±2% |
| Orange | 3 | ×1,000 (10³) | , |
| Yellow | 4 | ×10,000 (10⁴) | , |
| Green | 5 | ×100,000 (10⁵) | ±0.5% |
| Blue | 6 | ×1,000,000 (10⁶) | ±0.25% |
| Violet | 7 | ×10,000,000 (10⁷) | ±0.1% |
| Gray | 8 | , | ±0.05% |
| White | 9 | , | , |
| Gold | , | ×0.1 | ±5% |
| Silver | , | ×0.01 | ±10% |
4-Band vs 5-Band Precision Resistors
Standard carbon-film resistors use 4 bands. Precision metal-film resistors feature 5 bands: 3 significant digits, 1 multiplier band, and 1 tolerance band, allowing 1% and 0.1% precision in audio, medical, and aerospace electronics.
📐 Electronics Prototyping: 5-Band Precision Bias Resistor Decoding
Real-World Engineering ProblemA high-precision analog operational amplifier circuit requires decoding a 5-band metal film axial resistor.
Combining significant digits yields 150. Multiplying by 10³ gives 150,000 Ohms (150 kΩ).
The manufactured resistor is certified to measure strictly between 148.5 kΩ and 151.5 kΩ.
With 15V across the resistor, heat dissipation is 1.5 mW, well below a standard 1/4-Watt resistor limit. Compute circuit voltages and currents with our Ohm's Law Calculator or visit our Electrical Engineering Hub.
Standard Color-Code Band Decoding & Standard EIA Decade Values
The electronic resistor color-coding system, standardized under IEC 60062 and EIA-RS-279, provides an unambiguous optical marking scheme to identify the nominal resistance value, manufacturing tolerance, and temperature coefficient of leaded axial passive components without requiring micro-text printing.
Decoding 4-Band, 5-Band, and 6-Band Color Resistors
Axial through-hole resistors employ three standardized band formats:
- 4-Band Resistors (Standard Tolerance $\pm 5\% - 10\%$):
- Band 1: First significant digit (0 to 9).
- Band 2: Second significant digit (0 to 9).
- Band 3: Multiplier ($10^n$, including Gold = $0.1$ and Silver = $0.01$).
- Band 4: Tolerance ($\pm\%$, Gold = $5\%$, Silver = $10\%$).
- 5-Band Resistors (Precision Tolerance $\pm 0.5\% - 2\%$): Three significant digits, followed by multiplier and tolerance bands, yielding higher numerical precision.
- 6-Band Resistors (High-Stability & Military): Five standard precision bands plus a 6th band indicating the Temperature Coefficient of Resistance (TCR) expressed in parts per million per Kelvin ($ppm/\text{K}$).
Standard EIA Decade Series (E12, E24, E96, E192)
Resistor values are not manufactured at random intervals. Instead, standard component values conform to geometrically spaced logarithmic decades defined by the Renard Series ($R_n = 10^{k/N}$), ensuring that adjacent values within their tolerance envelopes cover the entire spectrum without wasteful overlap:
For the $E12$ series ($10\%$ tolerance), $N = 12$, producing the twelve canonical base values: $10, 12, 15, 18, 22, 27, 33, 39, 47, 56, 68, 82$. The $E96$ series ($1\%$ precision) features $96$ logarithmically spaced base values across each decade.
| Color Band | Significant Digit | Multiplier ($10^n$) | Tolerance Band | 6th Band TCR (ppm/K) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 0 | $10^0 = 1\ \Omega$ | -- | $250\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Brown | 1 | $10^1 = 10\ \Omega$ | $\pm 1\%$ (F) | $100\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Red | 2 | $10^2 = 100\ \Omega$ | $\pm 2\%$ (G) | $50\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Orange | 3 | $10^3 = 1\text{ k}\Omega$ | $\pm 0.05\%$ | $15\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Yellow | 4 | $10^4 = 10\text{ k}\Omega$ | -- | $25\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Green | 5 | $10^5 = 100\text{ k}\Omega$ | $\pm 0.5\%$ (D) | $20\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Blue | 6 | $10^6 = 1\text{ M}\Omega$ | $\pm 0.25\%$ (C) | $10\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Violet | 7 | $10^7 = 10\text{ M}\Omega$ | $\pm 0.1\%$ (B) | $5\text{ ppm/K}$ |
| Gold | -- | $10^{-1} = 0.1\ \Omega$ | $\pm 5\%$ (J) | -- |
| Silver | -- | $10^{-2} = 0.01\ \Omega$ | $\pm 10\%$ (K) | -- |