This course will provide a case study introduction to physics in the context of everyday objects. The goal of the course is to make physics useful, and to help you understand and manage the physical world around you.

Patrick Henry was enormously popular during the American Revolution. Yet today, Patrick Henry is ill-remembered, most Americans might recall at best perhaps a snippet from his famous speech: "give me liberty or give me death." Patrick Henry, who helped to ignite a revolution, deserves better. This course will explore how Patrick Henry overcame challenges to reach the pinnacle of Virginia politics and unite Americans behind a challenge to Britain-the 18th century's super-power; why he opposed the U.S. Constitution; and why he then came out of retirement to defend the people's Constitution against the attacks of Jefferson and Madison.

This course will explore the Presidency, assassination, and lasting legacy of President John F. Kennedy. November 22, 1963 was so powerful a moment that in the more than 60 years since the assassination, virtually every U.S. President that followed JFK has used Kennedy's words and actions in an effort to craft their own political image. Why does Kennedy's influence persist, and will it continue? What are the effects?