Splash Biography

“Aristotle said a bunch of stuff that was wrong. Galileo and Newton fixed things up. Then Einstein broke everything again. Now, we’ve basically got it all worked out, except for small stuff, big stuff, hot stuff, cold stuff, fast stuff, heavy stuff, dark stuff, turbulence, and the concept of time.” - Zach Weinersmith In this class, we will explore Einstein's theory of special relativity, which helps us understand how fast stuff works. It turns out that when stuff moves really fast, things that defy everything you thought was true about the universe happen. We will also discuss perhaps special relativity's most beautiful application, showing that magnetism is just electricity but really fast (kind of).

Physics teachers hate this one weird trick! Take this class to learn about Lagrangian mechanics, a different approach to mechanics that makes solving physics problems so much easier! We will cover important concepts including the Euler-Lagrange equation, the Hamiltonian, and Noether's theorem. Then, we'll work through some practice problems that demonstrate how the Lagrangian approach can turn grossly difficult problems into beautifully simple ones. Warning: If you take this course, you will break the curve and your classmates may hate you.