Splash Biography

TRISTAN WEAVER, Math and Astronomy Nerd!

Major: Physics/Mathematics

College/Employer: Yale

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hi! I'm Tristan, and I like space. I also like teaching. Above all, I like teaching about space!

I grew up in Irvine, CA, and I would often visit the UCI observatory for visitor nights. I also attended an astronomy program there when I was in high school, which was my first time doing science! I also did an astronomy program here at Yale, which is where I discovered Yale. Also, while in high school, I got to teach martial arts, where I learned that I loved teaching just as much as learning.

Since then, I have been fortunate enough to have a bunch of opportunities to do astronomy and to teach, including summer 2020 when I taught at the same Yale program I had attended (where I got to meet a fellow Sprout teacher/Desmos extraordinaire!) I think space is super awesome, and I hope that I can convince you how great it is, too!.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S4569: Exoplanets! in Splash Spring 2022 (Apr. 16, 2022)
A boiling Jupiter $$6\times$$ hotter than Venus… A torturous world where it rains glass sideways… And a safe haven that others like us might call home… Exoplanets are worlds that orbit other stars, and they are stranger and more beautiful than you can even imagine! But how do we find these worlds? What are they like? And is it possible that there really are little green women and men who we might one day visit? Join us, and we will answer these questions and more! Note: Same class as taught at Sprout 2022, so if you took it then it won't be anything new now!

E4528: Three Ways to Break Math! in Sprout Spring 2022 (Feb. 19 - Mar. 05, 2022)
It’s time to show your math teachers who’s boss. Those precious rules that they hold so dearly and that seem so pristine and self-consistent… wouldn’t it be a shame if something were to happen to them? It’s time to make some mathematicians cry by breaking spheres, square roots, and sets! MWAHAHAHA!!!

E4530: Exoplanets! in Sprout Spring 2022 (Feb. 19 - Mar. 05, 2022)
A boiling Jupiter $$6\times$$ hotter than Venus… A torturous world where it rains glass sideways… And a safe haven that others like us might call home… Exoplanets are worlds that orbit other stars, and they are stranger and more beautiful than you can even imagine! But how do we find these worlds? What are they like? And is it possible that there really are little green women and men who we might one day visit? Join us, and we will answer these questions and more!

S4396: The Grandest Scales: Connecting Astronomy with Particle Physics in Splash Spring 2021 (Apr. 24, 2021)
The largest and smallest scales of the universe aren't as separated as you might think. Particles smaller than a grain of sand set the stage for the universe in its fiery beginnings, and forces spanning galaxies have governed its evolution ever since. Black holes are born because of the Pauli Exclusion Principle and die because of particles that live for nanoseconds. In this session, we will discuss many connections between particle physics and astronomy, including Hawking radiation, the cosmic microwave background, and the search for dark matter. Grab your microscopes and your telescopes as you join us in exploring the connections between the cosmic and the microscopic!

S4403: Relativity: From 0 to Lightspeed in One Hour! in Splash Spring 2021 (Apr. 24, 2021)
Albert Einstein is known as one of the greatest scientists of all time - and for good reason! In this section, we will talk about what relativity is, working our way from its beginnings with Galileo way back in 1632 to modern research in black holes and the fate of the Universe! On the way, we'll talk about how you can stay young for millions of years and develop intuition for the most famous equation in physics: $$E=mc^2$$. Get ready to hop on a rocketship and blast through the cosmos, this is going to be a fast (but still less than $$c$$) and wild ride!