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// Water Displacement 
// Story: In Which Brass Slide is Annoyed 
// by Fluid Apple 
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     Brass Slide sighed as he walked into his Physics class. He looked over to his table to see a beige unicorn waving at him. Another day, another hour with this imbecile. Brass walked over to the two-pony table and sat down.

The beige unicorn turned to him and asked, "Hey, did we have any homework last night?"

Brass took his binder out of his bag and shook his head, making not to make eye contact. I am first trombone in my high school's best band. I should not have to put up with this! Brass looked over to his lab partner. The unicorn, Trash Boat, had empty eyes and slightly parted lips. The red earth pony rolled his eyes. Oh great, he's spacing out again. Probably thinking up another one of his famous stupid questions. Trash was notorious for thinking of questions that were so dumb they were almost genius. 

Just then, the bell rang and snapped Trash out of his trance. He whipped his head around in different directions before remembering where he was and relaxing. 

Miss Cheerilee stood up from her desk and began to take roll. She called out students' names one by one and received a "Here!" from each one. Then she called out "Trash Boat." and got not response. "Trash Boat?"

Brass looked over to Trash Boat and saw him staring into deep space. Are you serious right now? He clopped his hooves in front of the unicorn's face.

"Huh? What? Who? When? Where? Why?!!" Trash Boat whipped his head around again. Giggles could be heard around the room from the sudden outburst.

"Dude, you forgot "How?", and she's taking roll." Brass pointed a hoof at Miss Cheerilee. 

Miss Cheerilee smirked. "This is Ground Control to Major Luna. We're happy you're back from space!" The whole classroom roared with laughter, making Trash's face a bright shade of red. After a few moment she spoke up again, "Okay class, settle down, settle down..."


She walked over to the chalk board and picked up a piece of chalk, using it to write "Water Displacement" on the board. "Today, we are learning about water displacement!" 

Miss Cheerilee put the chalk down and held up a metal cube. "This cube is made of lead. It has a volume of 30 centimeters cubed." She picked up a container filled about halfway. "There is 300 milliliters of water in this graduated cylinder. Can anyone tell me what the water level will be at when I put the cube in it?" She saw Brass raise his hoof first. "Yes Brass?"

Brass lowered his hoof. "The water level will be at 330 milliliters."

Miss Cheerilee nodded her head. "Very good, Brass. When the cube is dropped in like this", she puts the cube in and lets it sink to the bottom, "the volume of the cube is added to the volume of the water to get the new water level!"

She put the cylinder down and picked up the chalk. On the board, she wrote down a page number with a bunch of problems. "Okay class, I didn't have anything planned after that, so just do numbers 1-99 on page 187." The whole class groaned, but Miss Cheerilee ignored it. Clapping her hooves together she exclaimed, "Get busy on your work!" She started walking slowly around the room to help a student if needed.

Brass Slide opened up his book and quickly got started. His eyes scanned problem after problem, and filled his page with answers. After 20 minutes, he decided to take a break. He learned back in his chair with a sigh and put his quill down. He looked over to Trash Boat and groaned.

This colt is ridiculous. Why does he space out so much? He used a hoof to shake the beige pony on the shoulder. This time, he came out of his trance calmly and slowly turned to Brass. He whispered, "Dude..." while looking off in to what must have been the distance for him.

Brass's eyes widened a bit. Oh no...he's got another one of his stupid epiphanies brewing... He sighed and reluctantly looked at Trash. "What?"

"I wonder how much the water level of the ocean would drop if all the sea life was taken out..."

Brass just stared at him with his mouth hung open. Why? How? how are you so stupid?

"Just think about it" ,Trash Boat continued. "The ocean is huuuuge, right? But there's a lot of sea life, right? All the fish and plants must take up a lot of volume, so if all of it was taken out, how much would the water level drop?"

Brass said nothing.

Trash kept going. "And where would we put all the sea life? We don't want it to die. Maybe we could carve ice out of Antartica and turn it all into aquariums! Yea, that'd be a good idea! But what counts as life? Sure, plants and animals are alive, and bacteria too, but what about viruses? Right now, there's a debate on whether or not a virus is a living thing...so maybe-

At this moment, Mss Cheerilee was walking by and stopped. "What's this about viruses and aquariums, Trash?"

Brass's eyes went wide again. No Miss Cheerilee! It's a mistake!

Trash Boat turned around to face her. "Oh well I was just wondering...if all the sea life were taken out of the ocean, how much would the water level drop?"

Miss Cheerilee stood there with a confused face, squinting and mouthing 'what?' over and over. She stared at Trash in disbelief before shutting her eyes and putting her hoof to her face. "I should flunk you right now..."

Brass groaned and put his head on his desk. Another day, another pain...