#2 Pencils

October 2, 2004 7:40 PM

What's so dad-blasted special about #2 pencils? Surely a test-scanning system could be devised that just looked for the blackened marks?
posted by kenko to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

Because the marks #2 pencils produce are dark enough to be read by a machine without being prone to lead breakage and smearing. In other words, they're optimal for both tester and testee. Uncle Cecil's crew has the last word.
posted by Danelope at 8:02 PM on October 2, 2004

The 'H' stands for hardness, the 'B' stands for blackness, and HB is for hard and black pencils. The hardest is a 9H, followed by 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, and H. F is the middle of the hardness scale; then comes HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B, and 9B, which is the softest. Another grading method uses numbers; the equivalents would be #1=B, #2=HB, #2-1/2=F, #3=H, and #4=2H. The most commonly used writing pencil is the #2 (HB grade), which is fairly soft, contains more graphite, and leaves a dark mark.

Thus an HB is an ideal lead, a bit hard and dark.
posted by riffola at 10:07 PM on October 2, 2004

Sorry, I forgot to link the site where I copied this from... The Pencil Hardness Test
posted by riffola at 10:08 PM on October 2, 2004

6B's rock for drawing, though. You just can't get real "black" out of a #2 -- no matter how hard you press, the best you can get is grey. Bleh.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:09 AM on October 3, 2004

You probably could use a pen on a standardized test if you wanted -- but heaven help you if you make a mistake on your SAT or LSAT.
posted by herc at 10:07 AM on October 3, 2004

Pencil graphite / lead are conductive. Pen isn't.

Therefore, I suppose, rather than use an optical method of scanning, an completely electrical method could be used.

Although, I doubt they'd do that, it's possible.

Now, I had always thought the pencil number was in relation to its size, as I recall primary school pencils (big thick ones) being "#1". But, I am likely wrong on that.
posted by shepd at 4:47 PM on October 3, 2004

At my school, UGA, the scantrons can read both ink pens and pencils nowadays.
posted by jmd82 at 7:53 PM on October 3, 2004