Numbers in the News: Pencils

Time to sharpen your pencils— it’s the start of a new school year! Here are some facts about these essential classroom tools.

August 29, 2022

1565

Year that the earliest known wooden pencil was crafted by inserting graphite, a form of the element carbon (C), into a hollow tube of wood.

1853

Year that erasers, made of rubber, were first attached to pencils.

731 MILES

Length of the line that could be drawn using the graphite found in the average pencil.

2,500

Approximate number of pencils that can be made from a single tree.

THINK ABOUT IT: How many pencils do you think you use in a year? How many do you think you’ll use in total, from grades K-12?

_{^{SOURCES: CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS, DISCOVER MAGAZINE, GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, MUSGRAVE PENCIL COMPANY, 100 ESSENTIAL THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU DIDN’T KNOW: MATH EXPLAINS YOUR WORLD BY JOHN D. BARROW}}

Skills Sheets (2)

Skills Sheets (2)

Text-to-Speech