When students first see the parallel resistance equation, the natural question to ask is, "Where did that thing come from?" It is truly an odd piece of arithmetic, and its origin deserves a good explanation.
Resistance, by definition, is the measure of friction a component presents to the flow of electrons through it. Resistance is symbolized by the capital letter "R" and is measured in the unit of "ohm." However, we can also think of this electrical property in terms of its inverse: how easy it is for electrons to flow through a component, rather than how difficult. If resistance is the word we use to symbolize the measure of how difficult it is for electrons to flow, then a good word to express how easy it is for electrons to flow would be conductance.
Mathematically, conductance is the reciprocal, or inverse, of resistance:
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