Rapunzel
Once upon a time there lived a man and woman in an old hut. Next door to them, was a grand house with several stories where a witch lived. The old hag had a grand garden with every single vegetable ever thought of. The couple never really talked to the witch because they feared her. One day, the woman felt depressed and fell ill. The husband knew not what was wrong with his beloved wife.
"Dearest, please tell me, what is wrong?" the husband asked.
"Oh husband, I am depressed and sick." She answered in a quiet voice.
"Is there anything whatsoever I could get you to make you feel better?"
Quickly the woman's eyes lit up, "Husband, go get me a vegetable from the old hag's garden! That will make me feel better."
The husband, wanting to please his wife, went out into his backyard. There, he saw the big garden wall between his backyard and the witch's garden. He climbed up the wall, although he had trouble do to the fact that he was frail and there was much gravity. Once over, he fell into the witch's garden accelerating at 9.8 meters per second per second. Quickly, he grabbed some cucumbers and left. Having eaten the cucumbers, the wife felt much better.
The next day, the wife was once again depressed. The husband, knowing what the wife wanted, climbed over to the garden and snatched some tomatoes. However, this time, he was caught by the witch. The witch was enraged. She began screaming at the poor old man.
"HOW DARE YOU STEAL FROM MY GARDEN? YOU SHALL BE PUNISHED!" The witch screamed. The sound was traveling at about 330 meters per second. The old man thought his ear drums would bust since she was screaming so loud.
"Please, don't punish me! I was only getting a tomato or two to feed to my wife. She is depressed and only vegetables from your garden make her feel better." The witch stayed quiet for several seconds. Then she piped up,
"I will not kill you OR your wife as I was planning to. Soon, your wife is to have a baby. When the little girl is born, I shall take her in payment for my vegetables that you have stolen from me. She shall be well taken care of." Her voice was cold and icy. The old man, fearing what the witch could do to him, agreed to the terms. He came back home and fed his wife the tomatoes.
Soon enough, the woman had a little girl with beautiful blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes. The woman favored her. But as the witch had said, she came and took the child away. The witch named the beautiful little girl, Rapunzel. Rapunzel meant rampion which was a vegetable she kept in her garden.
~
Rapunzel had grown to be the most beautiful child on the face of the planet. When she was 11 years old, the witch took her and locked her up in a tower with no stairs, no doors, and the tower was in the middle of the forest. The tower had one window. Rapunzel was never let out. When the witch wanted to come up to Rapunzel and hang out with her, she would say,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your beautiful locks of golden hair for me!" Rapunzel would then unbraid her hair and throw it out the window. Her hair of course, would fall down to the ground due to gravity and accelerate at 9.8 meters per second per second. One day, when she was 16, Rapunzel wondered how long it was from the time that she saw the witch open her mouth to talk until the point when she heard sound. Rapunzel decided to test this. When the witch opened her mouth she started a stopwatch and when Rapunzel heard sound, she stopped the stopwatch. Her time was 0.62 seconds. So Rapunzel decided to figure out what the speed of sound was. She knew that the tower was 50 meters tall and hat the time was 0.6 and she knew that if she knew 2 of the 3, she could easily find the 3rd. So Rapunzel took a piece of paper ad wrote it down. First, her formula was S=d/t. She knew distance and time so her formula became S=50m/0.62s. So she divided 50 meters by 0.62 seconds and got 81 meters per second.
"Old witch old witch! Guess what! Did you know that speed travels at 81 meters per second? Does that sound reasonable to you? I don't think so!" Rapunzel called down to the witch who was still on the ground.
"RAPUNZEL! I don't care! Throw your stupid hair down so I can climb up!"
Rapunzel, fearing the witch's wrath, threw her hair and painfully waited while the witch climbed up her hair.
When she got to the top, the witch said, "Boy is it hot in here! It must be at least 21 degrees Celsius in here!"
"Hmm...Well I am not too good with Celsius, so I will convert it to Fahrenheit."
"Not now Rapunzel! Listen, I heard that a prince is coming into the forest looking for a beautiful damsel with golden hair locked in a tower," At this Rapunzel gleamed with joy, "but, under no circumstances are you to let him up! Do you understand?" Rapunzel nodded and the witch left.
The very next day, just as the witch predicted, a handsome prince rode into the forest and a white stallion. He hid in a tree while the witch called to Rapunzel. Since she yelled so loud, the prince could easily hear every word. Once she came back down and left, the prince walked right over to the window and called to Rapunzel,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your beautiful locks of golden hair for me!"
Rapunzel, wondering why the witch had come again, obediently threw down her hair for the copycat with to climb.
"Why! Her hair is falling at 9.8 meters per second per second!" The prince exclaimed. At that moment, Rapunzel looked out the window, and saw not the witch standing there but a handsome prince on a horse. She gasped and quickly pulled her hair back up.
"I'm. I'm sorry, I can't let you up!" Rapunzel honestly wanted to let him up because she had never had friends and this was her chance to have a friend. Ignoring the witch's command, she let her hair down again, but when the prince began to climb, she felt as if her neck was breaking!
"Oh, dear prince, you cannot climb my hair the way the old witch does! You are too heavy!" Rapunzel felt tears welling up in her eyes.
"Well then, why not make a pulley out of your hair? Then you will have a mechanical advantage and it will be much easier for you to pull me up." Rapunzel clapped with joy and ran into her room to get two wheels that would be perfect to make pulleys out of. She hooked one wheel to the window. Rapunzel tied her hair to the other end of the wheel. She drew a picture to help her understand how to build the pulley. Then, she threw the other wheel out of the window and the prince grabbed on. Slowly but efficiently, Rapunzel pulled the prince all the way up to her room.
"This pulley as a mechanical advantage of 2!" exclaimed Rapunzel as she showed the prince her detailed picture of the pulley. Then she gave him a big bear hug!
"Boy is it hot in here! It must be about 85 degrees Fahrenheit in here. But, since you think in Celsius, I will convert 85 degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius. So, let's take 85, subtract 32 from it, then multiply it by 5 and divide by 9. That will come out to about 29.4 degrees Celsius!." The prince said with pride in his voice. Rapunzel had already disassembled the pulley and was about to answer the prince, when they heard,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your beautiful locks of golden hair for me! Oh no! It was the witch! What was going to happen to the prince? The witch must have heard them! Oh no!!!! All these thoughts were running through Rapunzel's head. She pushed the prince into her closet and with shaking hands, let down her locks of golden hair. She waited and waited but the witch never came.
Rapunzel looked out the window and saw the witch fast asleep. Quietly, she let the prince out and he carefully and slowly descended to the ground. Rapunzel was so terror struck by the witch that she didn't even notice that the prince climbed down without the pulley. As soon as he was out of sight, Rapunzel sighed. Then the witch awoke and climbed Rapunzel's hair.
"Why, Rapunzel, you are so pale! Why is there a pulley at your window?" The witch asked suspiciously.
"Oh, well, that is because I thought it would be easier for you to climb, and that way, I could pull you up." Thankfully the witch believed her and began wandering around her room sniffing.
"Dear old witch, why do you smell my room?" Rapunzel cautiously asked.
"Because, I smell a strange odor new to my nose." Rapunzel nearly fainted when she saw that the prince left his cape behind on her bed.
The witch saw the cape and both Rapunzel and the witch were speechless for minutes. Then the witch's anger flared and she yelled,
"RAPUNZEL! YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU DISOBEYED MY ORDERS! YOU LET THE PRINCE IN! YOU THOUGHT I WOULD NOT FIND OUT! BUT, LITTLE Mr. PRNICE FORGOT HIS CAPE! YOU DISOBEDIENT GIRL! YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE MY DAUGHTER ANY MORE!" With that, she grabbed Rapunzel beautiful locks of golden hair and cut them right off! Her hair was no longer long, but short. Rapunzel collapsed on the ground. The hair that she spent 16 years growing was gone.
The witch took Rapunzel and left her in the very middle of the forest where she was sure that no prince would ever find her. Later that night, she fastened Rapunzel's hair to hers and let it out for she knew the prince was coming. Sure enough, within several minutes, the Prince rode up to the window and climbed the hair. What he met at the top, was not Rapunzel but the ugly witch.
"You tried to steal away Rapunzel! I thought I had her shielded from the whole world! But no, you had to come along and climb her hair! You will never see you beloved Rapunzel again! Because of you, my beautiful Rapunzel had her tresses cut off. Now you also will be punished!"
The prince, not wanting to endure the witch's punishment, jumped right out of the window and fell into thorns that the witch had planted while she was blabbing on. The prince fell into his eyes and his eyes were pierced leaving him blind. He wandered around the forest eating whatever he could feel until he stumbled upon a clearing, where he heard a girl singing. Rapunzel, seeing her dear prince, ran to him, and upon realization that he was blind, cried her eyes out. Her tears landed on his eyes and a miracle occurred: he could see again! With that, the prince rescued Rapunzel from the clearing in the forest and led her to his castle. Since then, they lived happily ever after.
The End.
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