A poster on a Usenet forum who runs a lab at UEL posted that a lecturer had asked him to order some 10% tolerance resistors.
This intrigued me, so I did a little research and I found the results very interesting, so I'll share it here. See what you think. This was my answer:
This intrigued me, so I did a little research and I found the results very interesting, so I'll share it here. See what you think. This was my answer:
Quote:Why does he want resistors with such a wide tolerance?
I haven't been responsible for ordering components regularly sine 1969 (!) and I didn't have a resistor with a tolerance worse than 5% in my entire stock even then.
Taking a quick look on-line to see what is available today:
https://cpc.farnell.com/c/electronic-ele...-resistors
I see lots of 0.25W 1% resistors for just over a penny each and 5% values for half that so it isn't going to be an economy measure!
I looked for 10% tolerance and only found 9 results - and they are all 2W at 8p ea!
Interestingly, in 1969 I was paying 16/- (80p) for 100 0.5W 5% resistors so a pretty comparable price despite all the rampant inflation in the intervening years!
Given that all my resistors were carbon film and the modern ones are superior metal film, today's prices are a bargain!