A typical number 2 pencil is 7 millimetres in diameter and measures 7.5 inches in length. Typically, golf or library pencils are around 3.5 inches long. Graphite is the most typical substance utilised for pencil cores.
The pencil has its roots in antiquity, when lead styluses were employed for writing by the Romans and the Egyptians. After a graphite deposit was found close to Grey Knotts, England, in the 1500s, graphite started to be utilised as a writing medium. The first modern pencil was created in 1560 by Simon and Lyndiana Bernacotti, who put a graphite stick within juniper wood. Since 1890, most pencils in the United States have been painted yellow.