You've given us the E, but we need at leas one of the other variables. Form your situation, you can tell the ratio of the resistors to each other, but not exact values.
The ratio is 2.75 to 1. The values of 2.75 ohms and 1 ohm would work. So would values of 8.25 and 3 or 275 and 100, etc. Get the idea? We need another piece of the puzzle.
As the others have said, if you can only measure voltage, then you can only determine the ratio of the two resistors in this configuration, which is sometimes called a voltage divider.
If you knew the value of one resistor, you could determine the other. So what you might do is get a known value resistor, put it in series with one of the unknowns, and calculate from there.
If you know the exact value of one resistor you can use your ratio method to find the resistance of the other(s) but as most of the answers say - you have to know the current
the ratio of resistors is4.4/1.6. Without knowing the current you cannot identify the resistance values. they could be 44k and 16k or 4.4k and 1.6k or any such with a ratio of 4.4/1.6
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Quote: "... There must be a way of finding this out. ..." ;
..... well there isn't.
There are (in principle) an infinite number of possibilities. As you suggested you can find out the ratio of their values, but not the actual individual (or total equivalent) values.
4.4 ? in series with 1.6 ? would do it ( with 1 A flowing ) ;
44 ? in series with 16 ? would do it ( with 0.1 A flowing ) ;
88 ? in series with 32 ? would do it ( with 50 mA flowing ) ;
2.2 M? in series with 800 k? would do it ( with 2 μA flowing ) ;
I've purely made this problem up myself.
Lets say we have a series circuit with a 6V supply.
We also have two resistors of unknown resistance but we do know the voltage reading from both of them,
One resistor shows a reading 1.6V
the other 4.4V
There must be a way of finding this out.
I've been trying, I think it may have something to do with the ratio. between the resistor voltage and the supply.
Thanks
