Resistance, Resistivity & Sheet Resistance
Back to PostsYou’ll often hear the terms resistance, resistivity, conductivity, sheet resistance, etc. thrown about. These are all related, and are different ways of answering this question:
How easy is it for electricity to move through the material?
There’s a detailed explanation here, but it’s pretty boring. Read on for the slightly-less-boring version.
Resistance (R [Ω])
What is it?
Resistance (R), measured in Ohms (Ω), tells you how much effort it takes to move electricity through an object — or, phrased differently, it tells you how much an object resists the flow of current.
How do we use it?
Primarily in Ohm’s Law, the workhorse of basic electronics calculations:
If you know the resistance of a thing, you can get current at some applied voltage, or vice-versa.
How do we talk about it?
Resistance is specific to a single object.
GOOD:
“What is the resistance of this trace?”
“What is the resistance of this piece of wire?”
BAD:
“What is the resistance of copper?”
Why bad: This doesn’t mean anything. For this, you need resistivity!