Homemade resitor

[AlDee]

Originally Posted by EricH

I could argue that point.

I have a 6" connection. I connect the two points with 10' of wire. Is it still being connected? Absolutely. Is there a lot more resistance than if I only used 6" of wire? Yep.

<R92> does not say that you can't make some other part out of the stuff in it. For example, I could use the rubber bands and surgical tubing to make a nice powerful torsion spring to store energy for latching on to the pole. Is it legal, despite springs not being on the list? Yep. (Now, if I powered vertical motion with it, then I'm illegal under a different rule.)

So, if I can take the 18-gauge wire, connect one end to one connection, connect the other end to the other connection, and bundle the rest safely in the middle (using legal material for the bundling), I just made a resistor out of 100% legal material. The resistor should be legal.

However, again, I am not a source of official answers. The Q&A is, and the inspectors at your event are. If you would like to say what the resistor is used for, then there may be other ways to do that that are clearer with respect to the rules.

I would agree. Any wire, 6 inches or 10' has some resistance. So, I cannot see how a 10' piece could be disqualified. But your point is taken on being up to the the event inspectors. In 2009, our front bumpers failed inspection at the championship, because the plywood backing inside was a half inch shorter than the minimum, even though the bumpers themselves were technically the correct length, and they had previously passed inspection at the regional. In the end it came down the the inspector's interpretation of the rules, even though there was no rule that specifically said the internal backing material had to be a specific length.