# Why are erasers on pencils useless?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-erasers-on-pencils-useless/214785>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 23, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-erasers-on-pencils-useless/214785 "2003-11-23T02:50:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-erasers-on-pencils-useless/214785/1 "2003-11-23T02:50:28Z")

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I realize this isn’t a question of cosmic importance, but it’s one of life’s little irritations. Why is it that the erasers attached to pencils are always impossible stiff? They can’t actually be used to erase anything, so why are they included at all?

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**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-erasers-on-pencils-useless/214785/2 "2003-11-23T03:01:09Z")

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You either need to buy better pencils (I like Dixon Ticonderoga #2’s) or use them sooner. Most synthetic rubber has a tendency to become brittle with age. Just try using a really old rubber band sometime.

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**Author:** ![shea241](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@shea241](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shea241)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-erasers-on-pencils-useless/214785/3 "2003-11-23T03:11:51Z")

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Well when I was a kid I seem to remember using my pencil eraser untill it went down to the metal and then I either used a sharpener to get more eraser or if you tried hard enough you could get the eraser out of the pencil and use the little nub (which was almost pointless). After a while I was tired of the extra step, especially when it was test time and my pencil eraser was down to the metal and I eventually bought and used an erasser. I guess that I’m not that diffrent from everybody else and marketing genius probably figured out that people would eventually buy an eraser anyway so why put the extra money into something that most people would olny use in a pinch (like a forgeten eraser).