#HTE

Measuring What Lasts Longer: Pencil, Mechanical Pencil, Ballpoint Pen

This is pretty much the type of thing you expect to see people doing during lockdown. In this clickbait-y but amusing video from last year, YouTuber President Chay decides to see which writing utensil is the longest lasting, by drawing a continuous line until the ink or graphite is spent.

Chay compared two #2 HB pencils (one cheap, one expensive), a fully loaded mechanical pencil and a ballpoint pen. Hilariously, to draw the lines he rigged up a loop of paper on a treadmill and counted each “lap,” then multiplied them by the distance.

As silly as this undertaking is, the guy put in a fair amount of work, so I don’t want to spoil the exact results, which are surprising; if you’re impatient you can always just click to the end of the video. (But I will say the cheapest option beat the others by well over a country mile.)