Careers: Physics/resistor

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Question
why donot a resistor acts as a inductor in AC circuit?

Answer
Moni,

a real resistor does or can act as an inductor and/or capacitor, really. Our considerations of whether or not it is just a resistor or also an inductor for our analysis of the circuit depends on the relative magnitude of the resistance R and reactance 2*pi*f*L, where f is the frequency of the circuit. Naturally at the GHz frequencies inside our computers every discreet resistor would have considerable reactance associated with it. This is one of the reasons, why they are not used and on-chip resistors of tiny dimensions are used in these circuits instead.

Additionally, some types of resistors (a certain kind of precision resistance) are wound as a coil of insulated wire and these do act as a block with resistance and considerable inductance in series in an AC circuit. When using them, you need to consider the frequency of the circuit and their inductance to know, whether or not it is going to make an impact on your circuit's response.

Cheers,
Daniel

Careers: Physics

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Daniel Mazur

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Questions anyone (teenager, undergrad, graduate, professional) may ask on physics, mathematics or inorganic chemistry. Questions may concern subjects themselves or a possible future career in them, if you need advice on a school or hobby project, or you just came across a question that is beyond your current curriculum. I answer bare textbook problems sometimes, but I reserve the the right to redirect you to Physics-Physics section. The kind of questions I like to answer: I just started having science classes at school and they seem difficult, but I enjoy them. Where do I find more information on this, which is not in textbooks but still comprehensible to me? Just leaving high school, and I feel science is really the thing for me. Can you recommend a school and an undergrad program suitable to my inclinations? I am in my second undergraduate year in Physics. We learned the basics of universe expanding this year, the Hubble constant and all that, but invited speakers that gave talks on astrophysics in our department seemed not to agree with this model at all. Is it of any use at all? I am building a [materials research] experimental device for my masters/doctorate thesis and I have the following problem:... I have tried ..., but it still doesn't work. Where might the problem be?

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