Anyone who has ever taken an SAT has had the sacredness of the No. 2 pencil drilled into them. But what makes a No. 2 pencil what it is? What separates it from a No. 1 or No. 4? And what makes a ...

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Graphite is a unique element with special qualities beyond its use in pencils. It’s a fantastic conductor of electricity, as well as extremely heat resistant, withstanding temperatures of over 3,000 ...

Despite the name, pencils have never been made with lead. They’re made with graphite, a form of carbon. Just where does graphite come from, and why did we decided to write with it? NPR took a look ...

From Pencils You Should Know: A History of the Ultimate Writing Utensil in 75 Anecdotes by Caroline Weaver (published by Chronicle Books 2020, all images courtesy Chronicle Books) I hadn’t thought of ...

True or false: You can get lead poisoning if you’re stuck with a lead pencil. False. Lead pencils contain graphite (a form of carbon), not lead. In fact, contrary to what many people believe, lead ...

(CBS News) It's 30 days to Christmas, and over the coming weeks we'll be looking at intriguing holiday offerings, large and small. Even in our electronic age, the humble pencil is still very, very big ...