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Authors: Nate Ball

Forces of Nature (7 page)

BOOK: Forces of Nature
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Junk Pile

F
ollowing Amp's instructions, Zack and Olivia emptied the contents of their pockets.

They had Olivia's water bottle, a dime, two pennies, a small plastic container of mints, a message from a fortune cookie, a paper clip, a rubber lizard, a cheap pair of headphones, a plastic hair clip, pocket fuzz, the paper wrapper from a sugarless piece of gum, and four slightly smashed and dusty gummy bears.

Amp picked up one of the gummy bears and began nibbling on its head as he looked over the humble stockpile. “Not much to work with here,” he said, talking with his mouth open.

“Don't smack,” Olivia said, frowning.

“This pile of junk is no help,” Zack sighed.

“We're sunk,” Olivia said, her voice sounding higher and tighter than it had all day. “It'll be dark soon. Really dark.”

The light was indeed starting to fade. Zack glanced up. The clouds he could see between the treetops were now turning a dark violet.

“We can do this,” Amp said, biting a foot off his gummy bear.

“How so?” Olivia asked.

Amp dropped the gummy bear, brushed off his hands, and handed the paper clip to Zack. “Quick, twist that around till the small, straight end breaks off.”

“What's it for? To pick your teeth?” Zack asked.

“That will be our compass needle,” Amp said. “It's the most important part of the compass we're about to make. That paper clip is made of steel wire, so we can magnetize it.”

“I thought iron was the best metal for a magnet,” Zack said, recalling a bit of information about his science experiment from so many weeks ago.

“Yes, pure iron is best. But that steel is an alloy of mostly iron and a little bit of carbon. Perfect for an improvised magnet.”

“Improvised?” Zack said.

“That's just a fancy way of saying Amp's making this up as he goes,” Olivia said.

Zack finished twisting off the end of the paper clip and held it up. “Which way is north, paper clip?”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Amp said, shaking his head. “I can see I have more to teach you about science
and
about thinking on your feet.”

“But I'm sitting on my butt,” Zack said, confused. “Do you mean you need to teach me about thinking on my butt?”

“Seriously?” Olivia said to Zack. “What's next, Amp?”

Amp took the lid off the round, plastic container of mints, which looked like a miniature green hockey puck. He then flipped it over with his foot, sending a dozen tiny white mints scattering into the dirt.

“Hey!” Zack protested. “Those are mine!” He picked a few out of the dirt, blew them off, and popped them in his mouth. “I'm starving!”

“So gross,” Olivia said, shaking her head.

Zack grabbed two of the dusty gummy bears and threw those into his mouth, too. “I could eat a real bear right now. I'm so hungry.”

Amp flipped the green mint container back over with a grunt. “Okay, Olivia, now break open one of those headphones. There should be a small magnet inside.”

Without hesitation, Olivia broke open one of the earpieces by smashing it on a nearby rock, easily splitting the plastic in half with a loud
crack
!

“Hey, my headphones!” Zack howled. “Could we stop destroying my stuff, please? I'm the one who contributed the lizard!”

“That rubber toy is of no use,” Amp said, “but most speakers—even headphone speakers—have a small magnet inside.” He took the tiny black piece of metal that Olivia plucked from the speaker and studied it. “Zack, rub this side on the paper clip, but only in one direction. And lift it away from the paper clip after each stroke. We need all the magnetic moments in that steel pointing in one direction. Count the magnet swipes out, all the way to one hundred.”

“So the north end of our magnet will point to the north pole, right?” Zack said, feeling proud of himself for getting it.

“No, not exactly,” Amp said simply. “While the north pole of the Earth is indeed the geographic north, it is actually reversed when it comes to this planet's magnetic poles. They're opposite. So the Earth's northern pole is actually the southern pole magnetically. Get it?”

“My brain just exploded inside my skull,” Zack said quietly.

Olivia nodded. “So the north pole of our paper clip magnet will point to the southern pole magnetically, which is north geographically?”

“Exactly!” Amp cried, clearly impressed by Olivia's grasp of magnetism. “Remember, opposites attract when it comes to magnets.”

“Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight,” Zack growled, rubbing the magnet over the paper clip again and again.

“Okay, Olivia, please pour some of your water in here,” Amp said, pointing to the now-empty plastic mint container.

Olivia carefully filled it with water.

“Now we need something to float our paper clip on,” Amp said, picking up the paper gum wrapper and studying it.

“How about a flower petal?” Olivia said, picking up one of the flower petals she had dropped earlier.

“Perfect,” Amp said. “Lay it flat on the water. Understand, this planet's magnetism is actually quite weak, so we need to remove as much resistance as we can, so the paper clip can swing around easily. There will be very little friction in this setup.”

Olivia placed the petal on the water surface. It floated perfectly. “So pretty,” she said.

“One hundred!” Zack said, holding up the paper clip. “Done!”

“Okay, now look, the southern end of our magnet has a little bend in it,” Amp noted, pointing to the piece of metal. “The northern end is the perfectly straight end. So, Zack, gently place our pointer on this floating petal.”

Zack dropped the piece of paper clip onto the petal and the three of them stared at their tiny contraption. Then, as if by magic, their tiny paper-clip-and-flower-petal boat rotated slowly and pointed directly at Zack.

“Whoa,” Zack whispered. “That's amazing.”

“It worked,” Olivia said, her eyes fixed on their makeshift compass. “But still, which way is north?”

“What do you mean, which way is north, Lost 'Livia? It's clearly pointing that way!” Zack gestured in one of two directions the compass was pointing.

“But what if it's
that
way?” Olivia demanded, pointing in the opposite direction.

“Olivia's right, Zack,” Amp said. “Our paper clip didn't exactly come pre-magnetized with its
north pole painted red for us. We do know that one end is pointing north, and the other is pointing south—we just don't know which is which. We need another reference to give us a clue.”

“I'm out of clues,” Zack said, rubbing his eyes as the sun emerged from the low hanging clouds to illuminate the horizon before disappearing below it. Olivia looked in the direction Zack was rubbing his eyes.

“The sun!” she exclaimed. “It sets in the west!”

“But it's gone already,” said Zack. “We're still stuck with a compass with the accuracy of a coin toss. We're sunk.”

“It's OK, all we need is a general direction of where west is,” said Amp. “Which side of the compass was the sun setting on?” he asked.

“Left side,” said Zack.

“Ooh!” Olivia shouted. “I remember now! Soggy waffles!”

“What?” Zack and Amp exclaimed together.

“This is no time to ruminate on odd dietary interests.” Amp frowned.

“Speak for yourself, SweeTart breath.” Zack chuckled.

“No, I'm remembering the directions from the compass rose. Never Eat Soggy Waffles—north, east, south, and west, in clockwise order. If we point our left arms west, we'll be facing north—and we'll know which end of the paper clip we should follow home!”

“Brilliant!” Amp squeaked.

“Huh?” said Zack.

“The end of the paper clip with the tiny bend in it, that's north!” Olivia shouted.

“Attention, Erdian Council . . .”

Amp was speaking into his wrist recorder again.

“Mission accomplished! I have shown the humans the importance of a basic understanding of science, creative thinking, and using the materials around them in new and unexpected ways to achieve their goals. This is Scout—”

Olivia grabbed Amp up before he could finish his report.

“C'mon, let's go!” she shouted as she ran past Zack in the direction their tiny compass had pointed. “Last one back is a rotten egg!”

The movement and excited voices woke Smokey from his dog dream. He sprang up and shot after Olivia, barking as he went.

“WHOA! WHOA! Hey, you took the water bottle!” Zack called out after Olivia, but she didn't stop. Zack licked his dry lips, spun around, plucked the petal and piece of paper clip out of the mint container, and quickly drank the compass water. “Aaaah,” he said, savoring every drop of the mint-flavored water.

He jumped to his feet, then stuffed the parts of the compass, their paper map, and the tiny magnet in his back pocket. He ran after Olivia and Amp.

“WAIT FOR ME!” he screamed as the last remains of the light quickly faded.

BOOK: Forces of Nature
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