Have you ever wondered:

• What makes a curveball curve?
• How does the body convert food into energy for muscles?
• Why is a tennis serve faster than a baseball pitch?
• How do they measure the speed of a fastball?
• How does an outfielder know where a fly ball will land?
• What makes muscles work?
• Why do the clap-skates make speed skaters faster?
• How do they light up the puck in NHL TV coverage?
• What's going on when we swim?
• What determines our reaction time?
• Why are sprinters so much faster than marathoners?
• Can a piece of tape over the bridge of the nose really increase performance?
• How significant are statistics given in basketball or baseball telecasts?
• Why do we sweat?

Science provides answers to questions like these through a few powerful principles. That's what this course is about.

No prerequisites. Intended for non-physics and non-biology majors, but open to anyone.

Format: mix of classroom lecture/discussion and experiments.

Evaluation based on short summaries of reading assignments, and on classroom and lab participation (10 hours per week).

Cost: books

Instructors: D. Aalberts and S. Swoap