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This spring, an 80-year-old Japanese chalk company went out of business. Nobody, perhaps, was as sad to see the company go as mathematicians who had become obsessed with Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk, the so-called "Rolls Royce of chalk."
With whiteboards and now computers taking over classrooms, the company's demise seemed to mark the end of an era.
Being neither a mathematician nor a chalk artist, I heard about Hagoromo through my friend Dan, a mathematician finishing up his Ph.D. at Stanford. He recently appeared on a Japanese TV special about the demise of Hagoromo Bungu Co., where a TV crew came out to Stanford to interview mathematicians about the legendary chalk. One professor described hoarding enough of the stuff to keep him in chalk for the next 15 years. Dan is in the special too, calling the end of Hagoromo "a tragedy for mathematics."
Okay, he was obviously joking. But it is true that mathematicians are fanatics for this obscure Japanese chalk. Here you can see a long discussion online where mathematicians are hunting for Hagoromo chalk suppliers in the U.S. Satyan Devadoss, a Williams College math professor, even wrote a blog post calling it "dream chalk." He explained:
There have been rumors about a dream chalk, a chalk so powerful that mathematics practically writes itself; a chalk so amazing that no incorrect proof can be written using this chalk. I can finally say, after months of pursuit, that such a chalk indeed exists.
Similar reactions have been noted in the past from artists about the demise of Pearl Paints, or from photographers about Polaroid film. Any mathematicians care to weigh in?
[Editor's note: Here is a story link for those clamoring for one.. :) ]
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by timbim on Thursday June 18 2015, @05:13PM
Can someone tell me about the mechanical properties and why someone like a mathematician would prefer this chalk over another chalk?
(Score: 5, Informative) by BananaPhone on Thursday June 18 2015, @05:56PM
According to this:
Picture of the box!
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.3115584/mathematicians-snatch-up-last-boxes-of-the-rolls-royce-of-chalk-1.3116153 [www.cbc.ca]
-the chalk has a thin wax coating to keep your fingers clean.
-It's thicker than regular chalk. (easier to hold)
-you can press hard on it without it breaking
-you don't need to press hard for it to write (like the really cheap stuff)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 18 2015, @09:50PM
So how hard is it to manufacture this by oneself? I assume the department of chemistry etc might also be somewhat interested.
(Score: 5, Informative) by KBentley57 on Thursday June 18 2015, @06:16PM
I still prefer a GOOD chalkboard over a whiteboard. However, a good smooth chalkboard and smooth writing chalk are becoming more hard to find. Here is the difference. The crayola chalk (or whatever it is from the big box stores) may as well be a stick of nothing. It literally has no mass to it, and if you're lucky, you might get a faint, dusty line of translucent white, after trying to carve your way through the board into the next room. It breaks when you look at it, and despite not being able to make a visible mark on the board, it cannot be erased! Try as you might, you'll need the janitors floor buffer to get back to a clean state.
Good chalk on the other hand, feels like something in your hand. Without much pressure, you can leave a thick bright line on the board. It doesn't wear down or break quickly, and can be erased with as little as a quick swipe of the shirt sleeve. I've got a box that will last me until I die, and it's worth 10x its weight in printer ink.
That is the difference.