Hello,
How can I tell the difference between a 56K resistor as opposed to a 560K resistor by color code? It seems that both are the same.
xxK = x,x,orange
xx0K = x,x,yellow
Or ohmmeter.
Sometimes resistor colour codes can be hard to tell apart, e.g. red from orange, orange from yellow, but this can have more to do with your choice of bench lighting than the actual colours. Women often take garments outside the shop to check the colour in daylight away from the shop lighting for exactly this reason.
Men too.
At least some:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qtNJNxjz5vw/TJbk7ODvtbI/AAAAAAAAAXY/U_AT7_ai8Es/s1600/boy-george.jpg)
Which end do you start from to read the color code on THAT?
Look at the color code itself, it tells you that 5 is green, 6 is blue, 3 is orange, 4 is yellow. so 56 is green,blue, then the mutliplier for k is 3 and for 10k is 4, so orange or yellow depending on which you want. I never think of it as multiplier, I always just think of the third code as the number of zeros. so then 5, and 6, and 4 zeroes. 560k. (k being three zeroes itself. or multiplier of 1000)
And worked the other way, if you have green-blue-orange, look up those colors to find 5-6-3, or 56000, or 56k.
If you want to make it real easy, just use an online calculator: http://www.digikey.com/us/en/mkt/calculators/4-band-resistors.html
That said, you'll memorize them once you've done enough electronics.