Hello! My name is Tyler Jones, and let me start off by saying I might be a little biased in this opinion because I’m majoring in astrophysics. But don’t let that fool you! Knowing about how electricity and magnetism affects your daily life can become an important tool.
If you have to take physics, take it with a good professor!
So I’l assume you need to take some sort of physics course to get your degree. Well, from someone who’s experienced lots of physics professors and heard about even more from my friends, Mark Eriksson is one of the most patient and thorough you can find. He makes an effort to have every student understand the material. In physics, it’s east to explain things the mathematical way, but what keeps you coming to lecture is the way he applies the equations and numbers to physical examples. It helps you understand material but also feel that what you’re learning is relevant and important. By the end of you time in the course, you’ll be able to understand and explain Maxwell’s equations and feel confident doing so.
I haven’t found another professor like him and I can’t recommend him more!
So what, the professor might be nice but isn’t it still hard?
Well, I’ll admit there will be a bit of work involved. But you’ve made it into UW Madison, so I know you’re smart already! If you’ve checked out of math before calculus, this might not be the course for you. But assuming you’ve gotten past calc 1 and know about derivatives and integrals, this class will teach you the rest. Like said previously, he goes out of his way to make sure every student is up to speed and understands the material.
So if you HAVE to take a physics class, but looking for the right professor, go for Eriksson! He teaches other classes too, so see if there’s one that interests you!