Doing Mathematics with Fountain Pens?

[PianoMan14]

I have heard from many people that pencils are the cat's whiskers for math. All of my pens are M or stub, so I can't really do math with them, and have been using a Pentel P205 mechanical pencil. Do you use pencils or pens for mathematics, and if so, what pen do you use?

 

I did consider the Parker 51 because of it's hooded nib (which is extremely resistant to drying out) and the Vanishing Point.

[irbyls]

I use Pentel SideFX 0.5mm lead pencils for my actual math assignments. For notes, however, I use fountain pens. My P51 is definitely a good choice there because there are a lot of lulls in my notetaking, and I hate uncapping/recapping.

[Lloyd]

FP with at least as narrow as a fine nib. I like a semiflex to emphasis interim olutions as well as to allow more smybols (e.g. a thick lined beta is a different variable than a thin lined beta). For notes in class back in grad school, I used a Parker '51', a Safari (quick to cap), and a Pilot VP equally, all fine nibs.

[eslemexe]

in my elementary school and high school or any other school all my professors told me that maths should be do with pencil (or you know, mechanical pencil) but i don't know, i was like the rebel of the group and all my life I've doing my maths and physics problems with pen (most recently with FP) even now that I'm studying an engineer career

Edited March 31, 2010 by eslemexe

[millerb7]

I use a FP. Fine or extra fine.

[Dr Lopez]

Yes, I use only FP for my daily work, since I was an undergraduate student. For new calculations or going around new ideas I prefer a fine nibbed pen to keep it clean to some extent but I can use any (even stub or when I pass my notes in clean to a notebook. If you are used to writing with FPs it is not much of a problem and mathematical notes look really nice in broad lines.

[MJSchuelke]

All of my pens are M or stub, so I can't really do math with them

 

Why not? I did most of my university work with an M-nibbed Lamy, and it was good enough to get me a physics degree ;-)

 

If you need more space, get a larger sheet of paper. My favourite for math scratchwork was continous, 15" wide paper with green bars, of which the department seemed to have a nearly unlimited supply, although the printers that originally used it were long gone.

[PianoMan14]

All of my pens are M or stub, so I can't really do math with them

 

Why not? I did most of my university work with an M-nibbed Lamy, and it was good enough to get me a physics degree ;-)

 

If you need more space, get a larger sheet of paper. My favourite for math scratchwork was continous, 15" wide paper with green bars, of which the department seemed to have a nearly unlimited supply, although the printers that originally used it were long gone.

 

Ah, but this is a gold Pelikan M, and very wet--it is like trying to do math with a paintbrush, especially on my sub-standard (paper quality) math notebooks.

[OiRogers]

Perhaps I've always been a rebel... I did my chemistry lab books with a Parker Vector in school. I also did all my math work with the same Parker Vector. I did find myself recopying the entire assignment onto a "clean" sheets of paper to hide all evidence of errors I made while ciphering. I had several professors and T.A.'s comment on the choice of ink over lead, but never an outright "do it in pencil from now on".

 

I'm even more of a rebel now... I do the daily crosswords (both basic and advanced) with a stub nib on a Bexley pen.

[dcwaites]

A Parker 45 (F), filled with Parker Quink Black, took me through several courses in Physics, Chemistry and Statistics. If I needed to write some ultra-fine formulae, I used a crow-quill dip pen.

[physicsgirl]

If I have to turn in the assignment I use pencil, because most professors don't want homework and tests in pen. If its notes or problems that aren't turned in I use FPs. I write with med and broad nibs, since I have large handwriting.

[Stylo]

Ah, but this is a gold Pelikan M, and very wet--it is like trying to do math with a paintbrush, especially on my sub-standard (paper quality) math notebooks.

That is the usual key problem, the paper. Even with fine nibs, if the paper spreads out the ink a lot, it's tough to work with it. I do a lot of my work with FPs, mediums or fines. The wettest and widest mediums require writing slightly bigger (again, partly due to mediocre paper). My "true mediums" and generous fines are good enough though. On Clairefontaine grade paper, you can probably get away with almost any medium.

 

But if you are stuck with substandard paper, perhaps that is the perfect excuse to buy that nice pen you have been lusting over, with a fine nib to do some math with it.

[txinsk]

I have a B.Sc. in Mathematics and in college pencil-users were my bane. I could tell when one preceded my by the insane mess left upon my desk. Now at the time I was not using a fountain pen but I was using fine tip BP. You can do it, especially if you are good. Sometimes it is better to have a line out of an error, because sometimes they were not errors in the first place. Pencils and Mathematics do not have to go together. Besides whiteboards or chalkboards are better. Study group in an empty classroom with a chalkboard is gold. If I was to do it now, fine point fountain pens all the way.

 

Rick

[adsmith]

I am a PhD in math, currently doing research fulltime.

 

Starting a few months ago, I started doing all of my work with either a Pelikano or a Parker 51.

 

Before that, I used the free rollerballs that my old university provided.

 

In my college years, I used mechanical pencils, but I gave up on them when I noticed that my notes were horribly smudged, and I kept having to mess with little bits of lead during exams, etc.

Erasing is pointless anyway... it just makes everything harder to read and isn't worth the time.

If a mistake is small, scratch it out. If it's big, just grab a new piece of paper and do it right this time.

 

Actually, I can type LaTeX faster than I can write by hand, but I prefer to work on paper for the thinking part and only type it up once it's ready to be read by someone else.

 

I agree that nothing compares to outlining ideas on a blackboard with colleagues, but at some point you have to go back to your desk and work out *all* the details.

[tech gal]

I love my pens, but if I need to do a little math, out comes my mechanical pencil with a Pentel rock & write eraser by my side. My other choice is a number two Ticonderoga ( the best pencil ever made). That being said...today I was writing and a math problem came up and I used my Waterman Exception and did my problem in the margin of my writing. It was a rough draft so a little math in the margin did not matter.

[adsmith]

Also, I changed from Waterman inks to Noodler's bulletproof black, specifically because I have a habit of spilling coffee or beer on my notes, and losing [the evidence of] several hours work is really annoying.

[adsmith]

I did find myself recopying the entire assignment onto a "clean" sheets of paper to hide all evidence of errors I made while ciphering.

 

By the way, this isn't "hiding" anything... it's good protocol, and I'm sure your teachers appreciated reading a clean copy. Students who hand in the messy first draft of their homework are students who rushed through the assignment and didn't take a moment to think about what was going on.

 

To really learn anything---especially mathematics---you have to essentially do your work twice. Once to get it done, and a second time to look at what worked and why. The habit of making a clean copy from the draft is a good proxy for being thoughtful in this way.

[wheezur]

I do math with a fountain pen all the time - and I do a lot of mathematics. If When I make a mistake, I cross it out and continue, just like I do when I'm writing something non-mathematical.

 

I prefer a fine nib and I prefer a rigid nib for math. In contrast to the comments of someone who posted earlier, I do not try to make distinctions between a fine beta and a thick beta - my writing is not that uniform or neat - so line variation, for me, is not only unimportant, but I prefer not to have any for mathematics.

 

I find that I feel more secure if I use a rigid nib, as if it is more exact. I don't know if that makes any sense or not but that is my preference for mathematics.

[Stylo]

(e.g. a thick lined beta is a different variable than a thin lined beta).

Wow! I never try to pull off that kind of distinctions with handwriting, only with Latex. With handwriting, I just use arrows, hats, tildes, etc.

[antleredguy]

I use my Mont Blanc always for math until my teacher will say "Please use pencil". I resume using it the next day though... teehee. I don't use it for tests though. I feel like I need to be able to erase. The only time I don't use it is when we are writing in-class essays. My English teacher makes us use pencils for "grading purposes".

Cheers,

-Nick