Is a pencil a tool or technology?
547912
Both. Tools are technology.
1135022
The #1 pencil will always remain a free pencil no matter how hard it is or where you picked it up, right?  BTW, the hardness of a pencil is produced by mixing the correct amount of clay with the soft graphite before baking it.  I have had many pencils with clay inclusions that have torn the papers I was writing on.  Never happened in the good old days (before my time!) when they used real lead to write with.  In drafting class many considered #2 pencil lead as too soft but most considered 2H lead as "too hard" rather than "2 Hard" go figure.  Philosophers will likely tell you that life is a pencil.  To succeed you must get the lead out.  Good luck!
433941
The "lead" pencil (which contains no lead) was invented in 1564 when a huge graphite (black carbon) mine was discovered in Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The pure graphite was sawn into sheets and then cut into square rods. The graphite rods were inserted into hand-carved wooden holders, forming pencils. They were called lead pencils by mistake - at the time, the newly-discovered graphite was called black lead or "plumbago," from the Latin word for lead ore - it looked and acted like lead, and it was not known at the time that graphite consisted of carbon and not lead. The English had a monopoly on the production of pencils since no other pure graphite mines were known and no one had yet found a way to make graphite sticks. \nThe Germans manufactured graphite sticks (made from powdered graphite), but they were impractical. In 1795, the Nicholas Jacques Conte (a French officer in Napoleon's army) patented the modern method of kiln-firing powdered graphite with clay to make graphite rods fro pencils. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite can also vary. \n\nBefore themid-1500s, "pencils" consisted of a thin rod composed of soft lead, and were used mostly by artists. The word pencil comes from the Latin word "penicillus," which means "little tail" - the name of the tiny brush that ancient Romans used as a writing instrument. Graphite (named for the Greek word meaning "to write") was chemically analyzed in 1779 (by K.W. Scheele) and named in 1789 (by A.G. Werner).
763947
Today's pencils use graphite not lead.  Check your local Staples or other office supply store.
592529
click the pencil in the tool bar
487743
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil\n\nfind the answer in there ...
64712
are you pencil graphite?
470046
theres too maney pencils about
1073500
My favorite tool is the ability to reason. It is what separates us from all other animals. I just wish more people used it to behave more "reasonably".\n:-)\nBut if you meant shop tools, I would say the router!
821764
Last Sunday I sharpened a pencil but there wasn't any batteries in the thing so I just manually twisted my pencil around in it.  As for the type in your picture, I haven't used one of those since I was in school back in 1983.
586825
Of course, "lead" pencils contain no lead although they are named for early writing devices that did use lead.  The modern wooden pencil uses a mixture of graphite and clay (the more clay the harder the ... ooops lead).  See the link for details.
994067
pencil- the history of the pencil dates back to the prehestoric period when the primitive people discovered that charcoal could be used as a means of writing figures on the wall of caves and utnil today the pencil has been used as means of writing.\n\nchair-the chair was not too far away from where the pencil was invented since the primitive people also needed somewhere to sit while they were writing on the walls of the caves so that is why they thought of the chair.\n\ndoor- the door also dates back to about the same time the pencil and the chair where invented when one of the same primitive people was trying to find a way to close the opening of the cave while they were writing on the walls of the cave so they wouldent get cold at night.\n\npizza-the primitive people had to make something easy to eat while they were writing on the walls of the cave so that it wouldnt be all messy when they were writing and thats when they thought of domino's pizza.\n\ngood luck.
1123301
A pencil because I'd still be able to do one of the things I like most which is write and I'd be able to erase my mistakes. I wouldn't want to be a chair because I don't want people sitting on me and I wouldn't want to be a straw because I don't want to be in just anyone's mouth.
329461
No more than a pen or pencil can write.\n\nThe machine is simply a tool, it will be able to only execute the instructions that it has been designed and programmed to execute - nothing more, nothing less.\n\nIt all depends on your interpretation of the word "design". I would say that with the current available technology, no they can't design. They can simply explore the universe of possible designs given to it explicitly or implicitly by a programmer, evaluate each candidate design using a set of metrics given to it by a programmer, and select the best one.\n\nIn my book, this is not design, it is a search.
12574
kind of.  these days, pencils are made of graphite, which is not harmful like lead is.  it can get caught under the skin, in which case you'll have a blackish gray mark underneath the surface indefinitely (i have one on my thumb).
525453
They are great when taking "true/false" tests.  You just have to keep turning the pencil over until the magnetic force of the lead leads you to the correct answer.  However, they suck when taking an essay test.
120816
Mainly in architecture (though computers do most of the work these days...).\nAlso, I have a friend who is an artist, and when she creates 3d work (sculptures, interactive art) she uses trigonometry and extremums to decide certain things (the best angle for a part of the work, how to use minimum material when she doesn't have a big budget etc.).\n\nBesides, it's pretty fun, if you like math.