How much wood is in a pencil?

Answer 1

54

Answer 2

There are many different shapes, sizes, and types of pencils. A common shape is round, about 7.5 mm dia., with graphite lead about 2.0 mm dia. Using the ratio of circular areas, we can estimate the wood content in this pencil at 93%. Most wooden pencils also have an eraser, attached with a bit of metal. By volume, then, this will dilute the wood content. In a new pencil 190 mm long, where 9 mm of that length is eraser, about 95% of the length is "wood". Therefore by volume the wood content reduces from 93% to about 88.5%. In terms of actual volume (and ignoring the metal ferrule), this pencil has an entire volume of 8.4 cc, a "wood" (plus lead) volume of 8.0 cc, or a wood only volume of about 7.4 cc. My coffee cup holds about 175 ml (about 6 fluid ounces), or 175 cc. That means my coffee cup could hold the wood from more than 23 pencils! I will not leave it to someone else to answer this question "by weight". Offhand, I think the test density of the medium density woods used in most pencils would be about 400 kg/m3 (specific gravity near 0.4 g/cc).

Answer 3

Based on my research, Cedar seems to be the most popular. However, pencils can be made from other types of wood.

Answer 4

Pencils are made out of Cedar Wood.

Answer 5

normal wood

Answer 6

45