If a circuit containing five 50-ohm resistors has a total resistance of 10 ohms, the resistors must be connected in parallel. In a parallel configuration, the total resistance is calculated using the formula ( \frac{1}{R_{total}} = \frac{1}{R_1} + \frac{1}{R_2} + \frac{1}{R_3} + \frac{1}{R_4} + \frac{1}{R_5} ). For five 50-ohm resistors in parallel, the total resistance indeed comes out to 10 ohms.