Anatomy of a Pencil
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[edit] The Anatomy of a Pencil
- Pencils are made of three parts:
- Wood: Allows for handy gripping without getting your hand dirty. This is important because without the wood of the pencil, the pencil itself would be extremely delicate, and would likely snap in your hand.
- Lead: This is the delicate part of the pencil. No longer lead in these modern days, it is actually a thin rod of graphite that sticks out of the pencil and rubs off on some sort of surface, usually paper.
- Eraser: The eraser allows the user of the pencil to delete his mistakes manually from the paper. Usually made of differing quality rubber, it is used by rubbing away the graphite from the surface. Papermate erasers are usually of inferior quality.
[edit] Uses of a Pencil
Pencils can be used for a variety of purposes, some productive other's not. The obvious use is to write letters to intimate friends, or teachers and principles. The graphite, however, usually makes the paper rather messy as it is folded, and this is not always the most exciting method of intimacy. Another use for a pencil is the popular game of slap, a game that middle school children reportedly still play today. The object of the game is to take turns slapping an opponents pencil with the tip of one's own pencil in succession. The first pencil to break loses.
Pencils fall sometime into the role of a chew-toy, most humans when nervous or absent in their thoughts, will bite a pencil (or similar object, failing to have one the nails are also a common choice), in this way most people can easily identify and personalize their pencils, this can also be considered as imparting a type of protection to the object, since any other person would probably object using that pencil in the future (it is of importance to note that a complete destruction of the object as a result of this action is rarely seen).
Thus, the pencil was a good friend to many people when it came out. Sadly, as newer methods of writing have emerged, the pencil has been relegated to lesser status and uses. People now write messages on computer screens, never having to come close to a sharpener. One can only wonder what the keyboard will become when something newer comes along.
