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51. Halfway through the lecture, Professor Sherman

Halfway through the lecture, Professor Sherman, ever the inquisitive mind, turned his attention to the class. His gaze swept across the students before landing on Ted, who had been somewhat lost in thought.

"Ted," Sherman began, his voice cutting through the hum of the room. "What is shear force?"

Ted’s heart skipped a beat. His mind scrambled to find a coherent response. He wasn't ready for the question, having been distracted by his earlier reflections, and the weight of the class’s attention made it worse.

"Uh, shear force... is, uh, forces that are acting on a cross-sectional area that are not perpendicular," Ted stumbled, his words feeling clumsy. He mentally cursed himself for not preparing better. "Only tensile and compressive forces act on a perpendicular area, right?"

Sherman regarded him silently for a moment, his expression unreadable. The room seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the professor's response. Ted fidgeted in his seat, hoping his answer wasn't as off as it felt.

After a pause that seemed to stretch on, Sherman nodded slowly, his lips curving slightly into a faint smile. "Not quite, Ted, but you're close," he said, his voice calm but firm. "Shear force is indeed the force that acts tangentially to a surface, not perpendicular. It’s responsible for causing a material to shear, or slide, along a plane."

Ted exhaled quietly, relieved that the answer wasn’t as wrong as he had feared. Sherman continued, explaining the concept with clarity, but Ted’s thoughts lingered on the strange intersection of the academic and the personal. The lesson on shear forces seemed, in that moment, to echo his own internal forces—pushing, pulling, and tugging at his attention in every direction.


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