a small component that costs as little as fifty three cents resistors put up with a lot and don't make a fuss. with resistors industry would grind to a halt. they're essential in all kinds of circuitry. they're found not only end laptops washing machines and loudspeakers but also in winter binds power lines even in bucket wheel excavators the filament in an incandescent light bulb is a kind of resistor one that generates both light and heat electrical resistance is a measure of opposition to the flow of electrons that move as a current through a conducting cable driven by the voltage between positively and negatively charged poles the magnitude of the current depends on the rate of electron flow the thicker the conductor the more electrons can pass in a given time. and what contain the wild flow of current