The Beauty of Chalk | Hacker News Reader

The Beauty of Chalk

plough.com

40 pointsTheIronYuppie21 comments

> writing with chalk is slower than with a “smelly pen,”

I don't know... I studied theoretical math and my professors were definitely giving me a good workout trying to write down from the chalkboard.

I had a math teacher in high school who would write with one hand and erase with the other. You had to be quick with your note-taking!

The widespread replacement of chalkboards with whiteboards has been the replacement of a good technology by a much worse one. It's terrible.

On thing that I never realized is that chalk is much better over longer distances in larger classrooms.

When I took organic chemistry in a lecture hall that seated 200, the professor used larger chalk and you could easily see it in the entire hall. A regular marker would be too fine to see. I don't think that you could have a larger marker as the ink reservoir would be large and unwieldy. Plus it would probably drain rather quickly.

> chalk is much better over longer distances in larger classrooms

That entirely depends on how accurately the lecturer can throw a tiny object. IIRC some of our lecturers preferred board rubbers to the chalk itself.

Presumably, lecturers in classical Newtonian physics have a greater ability to effectively use difficult materials such as chalk than those lecturers of more abstract subjects.

Chalkdust is torture for some of us. My eyes sting and redden and involuntarily squeeze shut in the presence of a typical moderately-used chalkboard.

Same can be said about the whiteboard cleaning liquid and the smelly markers as well.

Similarly for me, chalk dust on my hands causes quite a bit of sensory discomfort. And when writing I feel like I continually have to brace myself for ???something??? while doing it.

It always feels like I am chewing the chalk. No matter how I like the visual aspect of chalk, the other senses revolt.

Can't this wait til I'm old, can I live while I'm young ;)

Although briefly mentioned on the essay, the Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk is great. I still have a few boxes of it from the mid-90s. Thing is, I don't have a chalkboard on which to use it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagoromo_Bungu

Oh my goodness, this article misses an unbelievable classic, and from one of the great professors of my grad school youth, A Topological Picturebook, by George Francis.

https://a.co/d/8TOdLJE

Smelly pen? When in school, I hated cleaning the blackboard (when it was my turn for the day), because my hands would then smell of chalk (and the disgusting smell of uncleaned wet sponge). So you always have to wash them, and washing hands multiple times per hour isn't very pleasant.

While I don't use chalk, I've found a professional mechanical pencil will usually produce better thinking than figma almost every time. There's an auditory and tactile element to drawing that really focuses my mind, whereas drawing digital shapes seems to feel without consequence.

Isn't chalk dust pretty bad for your lungs?

Yes. This is misplaced nostalgia. I am biased though - I simply cannot stand the sound of chalk grating against a blackboard.

the 'tak tak tak' of the chalk hitting the board with each letter hit a similar vibe as a clacky keyboard

more like "tak tak hiiiiiissssss tak tak hiiiiiiiiisss"

Yes, the only thing worse is the smell of the whiteboard markers and the cleaning liquid.

Did everyone else have that one teacher who could draw a perfect circle in one sweeping motion on a chalkboard?

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