Jessica played with Magnets

The class at the beginning was incredibly boring, as it was all orientation and code of conduct jargon that almost put Jessica to sleep.

“Now with all of that out of the way, how about we do something fun, eh?” The teacher said as he crouched down under his large desk. After a bit of rummaging through who knows what was under his massive desk, he pulled out a large box with the word “Magnets” written on it with sharpie.

“Magnetism is an important factor in what makes up an element! Different substances have varying magnetic properties, for instance, as we all know, wood isn’t all that magnetic.”

The teacher took a piece of wood from under his desk and placed it underneath the magnet. He then lifted the magnet into the air, with the piece of wood staying flat on the desk.

“But metals like, steel,” he said as she brought out a small chunk of steel from under his desk, “sticks to the magnet quite well!” The small magnet was able to lift up the piece of steel up into the air with ease.

“Now, can anyone tell me why this piece of steel sticking to the magnet, while the wood isn’t?”

The teacher scanned his eyes across the room, choosing who he wanted to answer the question. His eyes immediately landed on Jessica, who wasn’t too interested in the magnet talk as she stared absentmindedly in front of her.

“Ms. Lutz, do you have the answer?”

Jessica was brought back to reality. She nervously looked up at the teacher and stammered out an answer.

“Erm, c-cause it’s metal…”

“Hmm, while yes, a good amount of metals are magnetic, not all metals share that property. Could anyone else help Ms. Lutz answer the question?”

Jessica saw Naomi raise her hand almost immediately, and since she was the only one to raise her hand, the teacher naturally called on her.

“The steel is magnetic due to the way its electrons and protons are formed! Based on the way they are positioned in the atom allows the element to be magnetized.” Naomi answered.

“Great job! See Ms. Lutz, she’s got your back!”

Even though the teacher didn’t mean to single out Jessica, she felt very much called out. She knew she wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box, but surely she wasn’t seen as a dumb blonde by everyone else, right? This was twice today that she was called upon to answer a questions she was thoroughly unprepared to answer. This school must have higher standards compared to her old school she thought.

“For our first experiment for today will be testing which metals and substances are and aren’t magnetic using some of my strongest magnets! Now do be careful if you are wearing any choice jewelry as these magnets are quite sensitive.” the teacher then walked around the room, handing out a square magnet, assorted items of metal and non-metals, and a piece of paper.

“This is gonna be easy!”

Jessica and the rest of class then started using the magnets to pick up items off their desk, recording if they were or weren’t magnetic. Of course, most of the metals were magnetic and the non-metals weren’t. But the ball of aluminum and copper wire weren’t magnetic, which surprised Jessica.

But as she placed her magnet down to record her findings, she accidentally drops the magnet! If started to fall down onto the floor, with Jessica trying to catch it, but before she could grab it the magnet stuck to the lower staples in her dress!

Not only that, but the magnet then got stuck to the metal part of her chair! She tried to grab the magnet, but she couldn’t reach it!