The Best Anti-Smudge Pencil
Energy and Change
Adelaide Sabelka
- Grade:
- 7
- Teacher:
- Georgina Matzkin
My project is about the different pencil hardnesses and how much they smudge. I chose this because I like to draw with pencils. My result was that the hardest pencil smudged the least, and the softest smudged the most. This project is important because left-handed people working with pencils often smudge their work, leading to a messy look.
This is a very well-thought-out and practical experiment! Investigating how different pencil types (soft vs. hard) affect smudging shows strong observational skills and a great understanding of how materials behave differently.
You chose a question that connects directly to everyday life. We use pencils all the time, but many people don’t stop to think about why some pencils smudge more than others. That curiosity is what makes a good scientist!
Your experiment demonstrates an important scientific concept about materials and composition. Softer pencils (like 2B, 4B, or 6B) contain more graphite and less clay, which makes the marks darker but easier to smudge. Harder pencils (like HB, 2H, or 4H) contain more clay and less graphite, which makes the lines lighter and less likely to smear. By comparing them, you showed how material properties affect results.