Half a millenium ago, plague depopulated Europe, forcing an end to the Middle Ages: the momolithic structures of feudalism and the Church of Rome were shattered by the disease. In the ruins would sprout Renaissance and Reformation. Yet, arguably, the greatest effect the plague had on modern times began when, because of the Great Plague of 1665, Cambridge University in England shut down for two years. Isaac Newton, his studies interrupted, returned to his mother's house at Woolsthorpe.

At the university, Newton had found, not his intellectual peers, for there were none, but certainly intellectual stimulation and camaraderie. At home, with no duties and no companions, Newton focused his peerless mind on devising mathematical descriptions of the physical world. In one "marvelous year" he invented calculus, which he then used as a tool to formulate laws of motion; corrected the law of refraction of light; and discovered the law of universal gravitation.

In this unit, you, following in Newton's footsteps, will start distilling real situations into mathematical pictures and equations. The two spirits, scientific and mathematical, will be like a fighter's left jab and right jab. But when they have boxed you into submission, you will forever see, not stars, but triangles...right triangles...in all you observe.

What is a Force?

How Many Types of Forces (and Force-oids) are There?

The Mother of All Forces

"There is no Gravity, the Earth Sucks."--anonymous bumpersticker

"The Nation that Controls Magnetism will Rule the Earth."--Dick Tracy

Mountains, Valleys, and Saddles: Lessons in Equilibrium from the Wild West

Tug o' War and Teeter-Totters: Lessons in Equilibrium from the Playground

Starting to See Triangles

"Work!"--Maynard G. Krebs