A Light Bulb, a Pencil Sharpener, a Coffeepot, and a Sack of Potatoes

Illustrated by Tim Heitz

"**A Light Bulb, a Pencil Sharpener, a Coffeepot, and a Sack of Potatoes**" is the fourteenth chapter of *Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger*.

## Synopsis

Mrs. Drazil decides to spice up a lesson with an experiment on gravity.

## Plot

This chapter opens with Mrs. Drazil talking about Galileo to the class. She explains that he was the first person to see the stars through a telescope, and that he helped shape the laws of gravity, which rings a bell for Joe, who remarks that when they threw pencils and paper out the window, they didn't fall as fast as a computer. Mrs. Drazil states she thinks otherwise, since Galileo proved objects fall at the same speed regardless of weight. She starts to go on about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but Todd remarks that she's getting boring, and Rondi, Leslie, Paul, and Calvin agree.

She decides to do an experiment instead, much to her class's excitement, and suggests they bring her a coffeepot, a light bulb, a pencil sharpener, and something heavy. Benjamin suggests an elephant, but Mrs. Drazil remarks there are no elephants at Wayside School. Ron instead suggests they grab a sack of potatoes from Miss Mush, while Stephen borrows a coffeepot from the principal's office. Eric Fry gets a screwdriver from Jenny to help unscrew the pencil sharpener on the wall, while Bebe works on grabbing the light bulb from the ceiling. She places her chair on her desk to get up but can't reach. Benjamin pitches in his chair, Calvin pitches in the wastepaper basket, Leslie brings the dictionary, while Jenny and Dana donate their math books. Sharie attempts to take Mrs. Drazil's notebook, but Mrs. Drazil suddenly snaps at her and tells her to never do it again, when she does Mrs. Drazil then sweetly asks everyone to continue the experiment. Jason donates Bebe his lunchbox, allowing her to reach the cover of the fluorescent light with her tiptoes, and barely unscrew the bulb. The pile collapses, but she is able to protect the bulb.

As the other students return with their items, Mrs. Drazil organizes a chart to see which students expect which items to fall first. Eight think the coffeepot will fall first, sixteen think the sack of potatoes will hit first, three think the light bulb will be first, while only Terrence expects the pencil sharpener to fall first. Joe, John, Jenny, Jason, and Joy go outside to judge, and the objects are dropped. The students return, clothes splattered with coffee, Jenny with bits of potatoes in her hair. Joe remarks they all hit at the same time, while Jason remarks the coffeepot had the coolest explosion. John believes the light bulb hit last, which Mrs. Drazil explains was likely because of air resistance. She starts going on about how air resistance causes lighter objects to fall slower, and otherwise raindrops would be deadly, but Mac tells her she's getting boring. In a continuation of Paul's meeting with Dr. Pickell, Leslie notes that the classroom will need a new pencil sharpener, upon which Paul licks her ear.

## Characters

* Galileo (mentioned, debut)
* Mrs. Drazil
* Joe
* Todd
* Rondi
* Leslie
* Paul
* Calvin
* Benjamin Nushmutt
* Ron
* Miss Mush
* Stephen
* Eric Fry
* Jenny
* Bebe Gunn
* Dana
* Sharie
* Jason
* Mr. Kidswatter (mentioned)
* John
* Terrence
* Joy
* Mac

## Trivia

* This chapter has the longest title of any chapter in the *Wayside School* series, at 69 characters.
* This chapter is a continuation of the experiment seen in "A Package for Mrs. Jewls."
* This chapter proved that the joke mentioned in "The Three Erics" is false. Not only were the three Erics all on one end of the room, but so was the whole class, including Mrs. Drazil who weighs one-hundred and twenty four pounds. Yet when it happened at the same time, all the school did was lean, not tip over.
* Paul licks Leslie's ear after she mentions they need a new *pencil* sharpener, finally referring back to the events of "A Story with a Disappointing Ending." In that chapter, Paul was hypnotized to try and eat Leslie's ears (which, to him, will appear to turn into candy) whenever she says "pencil" in his presence. However, even when she dropped her pencil at the end of the chapter after breaking its point, the word was never said, hence the name of the chapter.

## Gallery

Joel Schick illustrationAdam McCauley illustrationPeter Allen illustration