Publications [#268219] of Henry Petroski

Papers Published

1. Petroski, H, On the fracture of pencil points, Journal of Applied Mechanics, vol. 54 no. 3 (January, 1987), pp. 730-733, ASME International [doi]
   (last updated on 2023/06/01)

   Abstract:
   To ask how and why a pencil point breaks is essentially to ask the same fundamental questions that Galileo (1638) did in his seminal work on the strength of materials three and a half centuries ago. Yet the problem of the fracture of a pencil point seems to have a sparse literature. In the 1979 paper, Cronquist observed that broken-off conical pencil points always appear to be virtually identical in size and shape, and he presented an elementary strength-of-materials analysis to explain the phenomenon. In his paper on broken pencil points Cowin takes into account a more general loading than did Cronquist, but while still working within the context of strength of materials. The purpose of the paper is to give some background on the problem, to explain an aspect of the fracture that remains unanswered, and to extend the analysis of the fracture of pencil points to a broader class of points. Refs.

   Keywords:
   GRAPHITE - Fracture;