If you've taken any high school physics, you're probably familiar with Newton's laws. What if we told you there was another formulation thereof, called the Lagrangian, that lets you solve many problems that are nearly impossible with just the Newtonian formulation? In this class, we will explore the derivation of the Lagrangian formulation from the Euler-Lagrange equations, then solve a few examples to demonstrate the elegance of this new formulation.

We use it every day, but have you ever thought about where language comes from? Or how it affects how you think? How does one even test these questions scientifically? Specific topics we will cover in this class include the biological basis of language, and the validity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. We will focus especially on using specific case studies to answer the above questions in a systematic manner.