Re: Bleed Resistor for Homemade/Large Caps - THE FULL DESIGN NOTE S

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 10/29/02 2:50:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:



>Original poster: "Jonathan Peakall by way of Terry Fritz 
><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jpeakall-at-madlabs.info>
>
>In series, the resistors current rating will be the value of the lowest
>resistor in the series and the resistance values add up. In parallel, the
>current rating is added, and the resistance value added. So in this case,
>each resistor must be rated for 5 watts.
>
>Regards,
>
>Jonathan Peakall


Hi Jonathan,
Let's go back to Ohm's Law 101
I = E / R and W=ExI
If there are 10 equal resistors in series, each one passes current of I and 
has a voltage drop across it of E/10. Therefore the power dissipated by 
each resistor will be I x E/10= W/10, not W. Ten equal 1/2 watt resistors 
can dissipate 5 watts total. Current passing through each resistor is I, 
total voltage drop across the string is E, total power is E x I.
        I made this same mistake last month while trying to think at 3AM. ;-)
Matt D.