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>a ten gigaohm resistor

Depending on the voltage across a resistor like that, you may calculate less than one electron passing through the resisitor per second.

Without ceramic or teflon standoffs, the circuit board can often conduct better than the resistor, plus dust can also accumulate on the outside of the resistor and conduct better eventually, which is why they are often encased in glass, so they can be effectively cleaned during a maintenance cycle.




> Depending on the voltage across a resistor like that, you may calculate less than one electron passing through the resisitor per second.

If memory serves (this was a very long time ago) the output signal was a couple of millivolts, so it wasn't quite that bad. But one other thing that saved us was that we only needed a few hertz of bandwidth.




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