Ever used a lead pencil? If you have, you know that if you press the top of the pencil it will push out a bit of lead in the other end. If you press once the lead will be too short and then the metal that holds the lead will scratch the paper, if you press twice the lead will be too long and break off when you start to write.

We brought the four Xmen together to perform a small test. They each got a lead pencil and were told to start writing. Two of the Xmen chose to press the pencil once before writing commenced, the result of this was poorly written text on almost totally scratched paper. The other two pressed the pencil twice wich resulted in lots of broken tips, ending up in using up all the leads before even writing a whole page.
Suddenly one of the Xmen forgot to release the thumb before putting the pencil to the paper, thus making him able to adjust the length of the lead by pressing the lead in while holding the thumb down. The group of Xmen asked themselves; Is this the solution to the lead pencil problem? And as you can see in the illustrated solution below, it was ...


1. By pressing the top (A) the lead is fed out in the other end (B).

2. If the lead pencil's top is being pressed once the lead will be very short (A). If pressed twice the lead will be too long (B).

3. If the lead is too short the metal that holds the lead scratches the paper, resultning in unreadable text.

4. Trying to write with a very long lead (the result of pressing the top twice) very often lead to broken tips which is expensive and frustrating.

5. The solution is to press the top twice. And then a third time but this time without releasing the pressure. Now while holding down the top (A), slowly press the pencil towards the paper (B) adjusting the tip to the desired length (C).