Do You Use Pen Or Pencil For Maths?

[Ytland]

Hi all,

 

As an engineering student, I do quite a bit of maths writing (equations/numbers/small indices) each day, and have never had the need to use a pencil. I've always found that a particularly fine pointed FP does the job much more pleasurably and smoothly, however by looking around the lecture hall I notice that most use a pencil. Even if the tossup is between this and a ballpoint (*shiver*), I would still think a ballpoint would be preferable to a scratchy, smudgeable, impermanent pencil...

 

What do you use, and why?

 

Jack.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Ytland

[AltecGreen]

From my freshman year of college through grad school to today, I use a 0.3mm mechanical pencil. Actually, I've used the same pencil for the last 25 years.

[dgturner]

I will use a pencil if I am completely clueless (but then it is a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm lead) else it is a XF nib (at least until I find another pen that will take the XXF flexible nib from my Wearever).

[Hex]

Well, I am long past my school years but I do Sudoku puzzles with a pen.

My wife thinks that I am nuts.

[welch]

In the olden days, we used pencils for math and a fountain pen for writing essays. You might find a mistake and would want to erase your answer in arithmetic or algebra. Sometimes we would use pencils for first drafts and re-write in ink.

[BlakLanner]

If I know that I will be making adjustments or corrections, I will use a 0.5 mechanical pencil. Otherwise, pen all the way.

[requiescat]

I was a math major and used to use a ballpoint or a gel pen. I'd do all my scratchwork in pen, then copy out my problem sets neatly in pen. The TAs never complained. I don't like using pencil because of all the smudging, plus sometimes when you're noodling at a proof, it's helpful to go revisit something that looked like a dead end and turns out not to be, which is hard if you've erased it.

[Ytland]

In the olden days, we used pencils for math and a fountain pen for writing essays. You might find a mistake and would want to erase your answer in arithmetic or algebra. Sometimes we would use pencils for first drafts and re-write in ink.

 

Haha, that's probably why my book looks like this...

 

 

[Ytland]

it's helpful to go revisit something that looked like a dead end and turns out not to be, which is hard if you've erased it.

 

+1.

[Sasha Royale]

I just enjoy using my fountain pens. In most written media,

errors are no longer of consequence. I no longer make mistakes.

I no longer admit mistakes. I am not ashamed of scratching out

my errors in pen. Erasers are part of a defeatist attitude.

 

My success rate has become extremely high, following lowered

expectations.

[recluse]

I am a physicist and doing math is my major activity for the last 20 years. I've probably used any existing writing instrument, including dip pens, on all possible writing surfaces. The variety of forms involved and working patterns (for example, switching between notes and computer and throwing in an occasional comment on a book or a printout margin) is extremely wide and if one's aiming at a universal tool then that's going to be something-not-to-be-named-here. One, however, can sacrifice the universality and to stick to a particular instrument, which is the best for particular tasks and, say, is the third best for other. Therefore, there is nothing surprising that all writing instruments are in usage. It's purely personal (and always justifiable) choice.

 

I am currently in a period of using predominantly fountain pens for calculations but judging how it was in the past I can't say that I won't switch to say gel pens, or ballpoint pens, or even pencils (however, I don't like the writing sensation), while keeping FPs for writing texts only.

 

PS By the way, when I was using mostly pencils I din't use erasers at all: neatness of working notes is about as important as the color of tie one's wearing while working.

Edited August 21, 2012 by recluse

[pencils+pens]

I do almost all math, accounting and tax work in pencil. I used to use 0.5 but have switched to 0.7 recently. The eyes are getting a bit old and the slightly thicker line is easier to read.

 

I never use the eraser on a mechanical pencil. My all time favorite pencils, the Pentel PG series do not come with erasers. The erasers are either too thin to be useful or break off easily. I use Pentel Clic Erasers. By using a separate eraser, you do not run the risk of losing a pen part you might have to remove to get to the eraser.

[humsin]

Pencil unless I have a real urge to just write something with my fountain pen.

[kps]

When I was a math student, I usually used pen (mostly a Targa, until the section cracked). Pencil doesn't provide enough contrast for notes to be easily read.

[fortlane]

I used a No.2 pencil in math and a FP in all my other classes.

[Flake]

I am not a math oriented person. I need an eraser.

[AloofObserver]

A mechanical pencil ( 0.5 or 0.7mm) because easy erasing is very important.

[gazorg]

That depends. Now it is a long time since I studied math, but then I used rollerball or sometimes ballpoint for taking notes in lectures and sometimes to work on problems and pencil otherwise. But most of my own work was on a whiteboard with eraseable markers. There is no reason for keeping what essentially is practice, I do not record most of my music practice either.

 

So blackboard/whiteboard was missing as an alternative, I think.

[Ytland]

That depends. Now it is a long time since I studied math, but then I used rollerball or sometimes ballpoint for taking notes in lectures and sometimes to work on problems and pencil otherwise. But most of my own work was on a whiteboard with eraseable markers. There is no reason for keeping what essentially is practice, I do not record most of my music practice either.

 

So blackboard/whiteboard was missing as an alternative, I think.

 

Hmm... I disagree. Maths 'practise' often involves solving individual problems that are an end in themselves. I've found my own practise problems a valuable resource down the line when I realise they could be used as a starting point for some proof or theorem.

 

When I'm playing piano, that's an end in itself. Each time you practise you produce a better result (hopefully...). There's nothing in the way you played the first measure of a piece for the first time that will help you when you're playing it for the hundredth time.

 

Either way, I use an fp (I neglected to mention that in the op...).

 

Jack.

[lastwizard4]

Ever since I started using fountain pens last month, I take down notes and solve math equations with it.