Basic math question about voltage, ohms, resistance

mathohms-lawresistancevoltage

total n00b here. After working on several projects by copy & paste from other people's schematics and code, I'm finally digging in and learning some of the math to know what I'm doing.

If I have a pushbutton (this one, to be exact) that lists max amps as 50mA, and I have a 9 volt battery, the math for the resistor that I need is 9/0.05 == 180ohm, right?

Best Answer

What do you use the push button for? I doubt you need such high current and can easily do with much less, especially when you use it as input for a logic circuit. Although @rawbrawb's 360 ohm will probably work perfectly well, it does draw a lot of current from the power supply. When using a 9V battery, the cell will be drained very quickly.

If the push button indeed is only used for a logic level to drive an opamp or digital chip, a resistor of 10kΩ would already suffice. You didn't share the circuit diagram, that might help in deciding on a good value.

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