Do You Use Pen Or Pencil For Maths?

[Renfield]

I use a calculator

[Wolverine1]

During college, I used a mechanical pencil, because I didnt know better. Everyone else used a mechanical pencil, so, I did the same too. By the time I got to grad school, I had started reusing fountain pens again, so, started doing all the math using a fountain pen. But, I still do use my 2 mechanical pencils to do some sketching, writing short notes, etc.

[Monophoto]

One of the things I learned in engineering school (DAMHIKT) is that it is very important to avoid carelessness in doing math. I found that using a pen caused me to slow down and think a bit more carefully about what I was doing. When I was in engineering school, I used a Rapidograph with India ink; in my professional career I used pens (initially ballpoints or felt tip, but later fountain pens).

 

You may ask - pencils provide the opportunity to erase errors. Isn't that helpful? My answer is absolutely not. In my professional practice, it was important to have an accurate track record of the entire thinking process that led to an answer - including the mistakes. So I left the mistakes, ruled through those calculations, and then inserted the correct calculations using a different color ink. So the track record is absolutely clear and unequivocal.

[JLT]

One of the things I learned in engineering school (DAMHIKT) is that it is very important to avoid carelessness in doing math. I found that using a pen caused me to slow down and think a bit more carefully about what I was doing. When I was in engineering school, I used a Rapidograph with India ink; in my professional career I used pens (initially ballpoints or felt tip, but later fountain pens).

 

You may ask - pencils provide the opportunity to erase errors. Isn't that helpful? My answer is absolutely not. In my professional practice, it was important to have an accurate track record of the entire thinking process that led to an answer - including the mistakes. So I left the mistakes, ruled through those calculations, and then inserted the correct calculations using a different color ink. So the track record is absolutely clear and unequivocal.

 

Beautifully put.

[Moynihan]

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.

 

1 vote each for fp and for pencil

[Paddler]

I don't do math at all, with anything. Math makes me itch and sweat a lot. If I need to do kitchen arithmetic (anything up through trig.), I use a calculator and write down the result with what's at hand.

[mik86]

I used an FP, but mistakes make it look super messy.

 

I used a pentel kerry, and the pencil is so nice that writing with a pencil feels luxurious, but also tiny eraser

 

I used a kuru toga. I had a reallly nice line the whole time. Great mechanism, but tiny eraser.

 

I used a pentel twist-erase. Huge extendable eraser, a descent mechanical pencil.

 

I tried to attach the twist-erase eraser to the kuru toga, but I couldnt.

 

I dont do math anymore.