I'm taking an electronic circuit analysis class, and I was asked to give the color of the 3rd band of a 1MΩ resistor. My answer was blue, thinking it could be black-brown-blue (01 * 1MΩ), but the automated quiz said the correct answer was green (brown-black-green).
So I did some research, thinking there were just multiple correct answers, and I read in a few places that the first band on a resistor is never black (0). Why is this? Does a black first band have some other meaning? It would really help me remember it if I knew the history or reasoning behind it.
This question has been answered. For further reading on zero-ohm resistors mentioned in the answers and comments here, I found these questions and answers helpful:
Best Answer
The first band is never black for the same reason that you always write numbers scientific notation with a single nonzero digit in front of the decimal place (e.g. 6.022e23) - convention. Generally the resistor specifications will all have the same number of nonzero significant digits (2 or 3, depending on the tolerance) except for a couple of values, namely even powers of ten (1, 10, 100, etc) and possibly a few others by coincidence.