I have a manual ranging meter and it works great. I was wondering why on certain materials, metal or otherwise, when I measure resistance the meter tends to jump to crazy values, occasionally settling on the suspected resistance for a short bit, and then jumping all over the place again. On store-bought resistors or conductors it never has any problem settling on the value.

What's going on here?

Thanks

 

I have a manual ranging meter and it works great. I was wondering why on certain materials, metal or otherwise, when I measure resistance the meter tends to jump to crazy values, occasionally settling on the suspected resistance for a short bit, and then jumping all over the place again. On store-bought resistors or conductors it never has any problem settling on the value.

What's going on here?

Thanks

Painted, dirty, or corroded connection points on the non "store-bought" materials?

 

It didn't seem painted. What I was measuring when I thought of this was the actual conductor terminal of a lamp switch.