The Case of the Crooked Carnival (6 page)
Drake shuddered. “Agreed. We must return to the lab for analysis immediately to determine why the bridge is moving. After all, public safety is more important than polished speeches.”
So as the bridge sighed again, groaning and hiccupping, Drake and Nell hurried back to the lab, with Dr. Livingston leading the way.
There was indeed danger in the air, and it smelled like bananas.
M
rs. Doyle poked her head around the lab door. “Hmm … I thought you two were at Peabody Park practicing your speeches.”
“Pressing business,” said Nell.
“Public safety is our priority,” said Drake.
“Lunch, anyone? Vegetarian chili perhaps? Cheese and crackers? And how about some dill pickles and bana—” Mrs. Doyle sniffed the air. “Oh, smells like you’ve already raided the banana bunch.”
“Excellent menu options,” replied Drake.
“Count me in,” added Nell.
“Got it,” said Mrs. Doyle. “Back in five.”
Drake pulled a book off the shelf, turning to the section titled: “Danger in the Air: What to Do When Your Bridge Sighs, Hiccups, Heaves, and Otherwise Goes Bananas.” Drake and Nell read the section together, their expressions grim.
Mrs. Doyle returned with lunch. “Now don’t forget the parade starts at two.”
Drake glanced at his watch. “T minus one hundred eight minutes, and counting.”
“Horace Peabody and Polly Plum won’t let Mossy Lake down,” said Nell, taking a sip of coffee.
After eating lunch, Drake and Nell sprang into action. They developed a hypothesis, as all good scientists do. They built simulations and tested their hypothesis. They checked the weather report, and then discovered a most spectacular, most terrifying video on the Internet….
Dr. Livingston whined and covered his eyes with his paws, unable to watch a second more.
“Horrifying,” said Drake, quite aghast.
“Mortifying,” agreed Nell, no less aghast.
Drake checked his watch. “Great Scott! It’s T minus three!”
“Roger that, Detective Doyle. I’m on it!”
Woof! Woof!
“Quick, Mom!” cried Drake down the attic stairs. “My costume!”
“Quick, Mom!” cried Nell over the phone. “My costume!”
Meanwhile, at the school parking lot where the parade had gathered, the mood was gloomy.
First of all, it was raining. Second, the wind was picking up. (The clowns had to hold their wigs on their heads with both hands, and the princesses were quite nervous about losing their tiaras.) Third, and perhaps worst of all, the leaders of the parade were, well, …
missing.
The mayor paced this way and that.
The band played “America the Beautiful” to pass the time.
Finally, at five minutes past T minus zero (2:05
P.M.
), they could wait no longer.
The mayor said, “The parade must go on!”
So, following a siren blast from the fire engine truck, the parade began marching down Main Street, flanked by the crowd, who cheered in spite of the rain. The cheerleaders waved soggy pom-poms. The band played the Mossy Lake theme song. Princesses tossed candy from floats.
Down Main Street they marched, past Barko’s Supermart and Iggy’s Ice Cream Parlor, toward Mossy Lake Bridge (which was, thankfully, empty of people because there was no room for both the parade
and
the spectators).
Then, just as the parade reached the bridge, who should come screeching to a halt on their bicycles but Horace Peabody and Polly Plum (otherwise known as Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey in costume), plus Dr. Livingston.
“Stop the parade!” cried Peabody and Plum.
Woof!
cried Dr. Livingston.
The parade came to a screeching halt. (The band bumped into the mayor.
Oompa!
The cheerleaders bumped into the band.
Ow!
The princess float bumped into the fire engine.
Ouooga!
The clowns bumped into the princess float.
Oof!
)
“Sorry to rain on your parade,” Plum said through her megaphone.
“But we have a situation,” said Peabody through his megaphone.
“Hush! Shh!” people were saying. “The town’s founders are speaking!”
“Riding our bikes on our way to Peabody Park this morning,” said Plum, “we became aware of a great danger.”
“We were in the middle of the bridge,” said Peabody, “when it moved.”
“It heaved and sighed,” said Plum. “And our sixth scientific sense kicked into gear. Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.”
“But what could be wrong?” asked the tuba player. “We just built the bridge. Looks fine to me.”
Everyone looked at the bridge. And indeed, except for being wet, it looked fine and dandy.
Just then, the bridge swayed ever so slightly and then did a little shiver.
The crowd gasped.
“It’s called resonance,” said Plum. She got off her bicycle and paced in front of the bridge. “You see, every object has a natural vibration.”
“Quite right, Professor Plum,” remarked Peabody, getting off his bike as well. “Look around you. Everything you see in nature, in the universe, vibrates. From atoms and molecules—”
“—to bridges, the Eiffel Tower, and trees—” added Plum.
“—everything moves with its own natural vibration,” continued Peabody. “Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true.”
“Now,” said Plum, looking quite serious, “you can enhance an object’s natural vibration by adding more vibration at the same frequency. Case in point: sing in the shower, and notice that there is one pitch in particular that sounds especially wonderful. That one pitch is the natural vibration, or frequency, of the room. Adding your voice at the same vibration creates even more vibration. This is called resonance, or sympathetic vibration.”
Plum indicated the bridge behind her, which, at that very moment, hiccupped. “This bridge has a natural frequency. If the wind matches that natural frequency, like singing in the shower, the vibrations can become more pronounced.”
Peabody said, “On a windy day in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed ‘Galloping Gertie,’ galloped so hard that the sidewalk on the right lurched up to be 28 feet higher than the sidewalk on the left before it plunged the other way.”
“Quite astonishing, really,” said Plum. “We saw the video ourselves. There were people on the bridge. They had to get out of their cars and crawl to safety.”
“Naturally,” said Peabody, “the bridge could only take so much. It broke apart and plunged into the water below.”
“Look!” A clown pointed at the bridge.
Just then the wind howled and the bridge swayed again. It moaned. It groaned. And then it began to buck like a mule.
The crowd gasped. “It’s going bananas!”
Indeed, the bridge
had gone bananas.
It galloped. It swayed. It bucked and kicked. It creaked. It moaned and hollered. And while the entire town of Mossy Lake watched, horrified, it broke apart, and disappeared into the gorge below.
There followed a moment of deep silence. Dr. Peabody and Professor Plum, and everyone in Mossy Lake for that matter, were quite stunned.
“Well—uh …” began the mayor in a wobbly voice. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that, once again, the founders of Mossy Lake are our heroes. You’ve saved countless lives. Thank you, Professor Plum and Dr. Peabody. Strangely enough, this whole incident has made me hungry for bananas!” And he shook their hands while cameras flashed. The crowd cheered wildly.
That evening, Drake wrote in his notebook:
Town SAVED.
Bridge to be re-engineered.
Nell and I named town’s
honorary heroes.
Given picnic in honor, with banana
pudding for dessert.
Thoroughly sick of bananas. Try
dill pickle perfume?
Contents
What? You Mean There’s a Method ?
Snoop-O-Scope for Spies Like You:
Sound and Amplification
Send a Secret Message: Codes and Cyphers
Your Own Little World: Ecosystems
Build Your Own Handy-Dandy
Paper Clip Picker-Upper
(otherwise known as an electromagnet)
T Minus 30 Minutes and Counting:
Resonance
Y
ou have an idea. A brilliant idea. So brilliant that life as we know it will never be the same again! You rush to your lab, anxious to prove your idea, boil solutions, and scribble in your lab notebook, except …
you don’t have a lab.
Egads! Remember, good scientists are always prepared. So be prepared for all your brilliant ideas by creating your own lab. Here’s how:
1. Clear a space in your bedroom, in a spare room, or in the attic—wherever your parents say it’s okay. Add a card table, a chair, and—Great Scott!—you have a laboratory!
2. Begin collecting items that might be useful later. Magnets, clean jars with lids, string, straws, tape, paper clips, measuring cups, plastic utensils—you get the idea. And, of course, all good scientists must have a pair of safety glasses.
