How do erasers actually work? It’s more complicated than you think

Pencil marks, composed of graphite flakes, adhere to paper fibers through weak van der Waals interactions. Erasers, with a higher affinity for graphite, mechanically lift and trap these flakes while also slightly abrading the paper. Unlike pencil, ink seeps into paper, requiring erasable pens to use heat-activated chemistry to render ink transparent.

By TOI Science Desk