Part of my final assignment for the course WRIT107WC W23

Have you decided on the courses to take next quarter? As an undergraduate Physics student in one of the best Physics departments worldwide, it is worth considering the courses to take among the whole series of well-designed curricula. In this listicle, I will highlight several best Physics courses offered at UCSB along with my personal rating of difficulties. From introductory to advanced topics, these courses will provide you with a solid foundation as well as unbounded opportunities in cutting-edge scientific research. So, if you're ready to start the journey of Physics at UCSB, read on to learn more about the best Physics courses you should take at UCSB!

1. Prepare for Your Journey!

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• Courses: PHYS 21-25 (Required)
• Difficulty: 1/10 - 3/10
• Relevant Research Fields: All
• Prerequisites: None

If you want to voyage the galaxy of science, you’d better be crystal clear about the fundamental principles of Newtonian Mechanics and Electromagnetism. Although they might be scary for a freshman, I am sure that they will become friendly to you once you get familiar with them. PHYS 20 series is a list of introductory courses designed for younger students. The introductory series offer great teaching assistants as well as the best teaching professors in our department. You can always ask questions for any confusion. Also, grab this opportunity to develop basic math skills like vector calculus and differential equations. Good tools can make your career much easier. But don’t worry about these difficulties, the conservation of energy is your best weapon which could kill almost all problems in the exams!

2. Jump beyond Newton

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• Courses: PHYS 104 (Required)
• Difficulty: 5/10
• Relevant Research Fields: All
• Prerequisites: a solid understanding of PHYS 21-22

Congratulations, now you become a real Physics student! Served as one of the four core subjects, Classical Mechanics is the secret knowledge reserved for you. You know, Newton is a little bit too old-fashion, right? It’s the show time for Lagrange and Hamilton. You will learn more advanced techniques and theorems for Physical systems much more complicated than several ideal blocks. You will explore the Physical laws of star motion, and also learn about the historical conflicts between Newton and Bernoullis. The ideas from this course also reveal themselves in the mystery of Quantum Mechanics and go further with you all the way through your Physics study. However, you will not be alone. Here we meet our best friend in our journey: the Pendulum. It will take you through a lot of difficult theories and always serve as the top example for you.

3. Feel the Uncertainty

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• Courses: PHYS 115A-C (A and B are required)
• Difficulty: 5-7/10
• Relevant Research Fields: Condensed Matters, High Energy, and AMO(Atomic, Molecular, and Optics)
• Prerequisites: PHYS104, better with PHYS100A for math preparation

What is the most fascinating subject in Physics? Quantum Mechanics absolutely! This series of course brings you a taste of Quantum Mechanics and its uncertainty not only in the Physical laws but also in the process of learning. It will be the first time for you to touch on some fundamental principles in Physics. Quantum Mechanics will blow your mind, reshape your understanding of our world and, unfortunately, cause some headaches at the same time. But it worth it for sure. After you go through these courses, you can calculate the mysterious problem like a master. Moreover, a philosophy will sneak into your mind and make you think about the reality of the surroundings. With a deep understanding of this subject, you will stand a good chance to change the world with some advanced research in many fields like quantum computers, and maybe get a Nobel Prize by the way! Have you prepared yourself to catch a Schrödinger's cat?

4. Mess up the Universe

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• Courses: PHYS 119A/B (A is required)
• Difficulty: 5-7/10
• Relevant Research Fields: Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Cosmology
• Prerequisites: PHYS104, better takes with PHYS115 series simultaneously

Stepping into another core subject, you could find its chaos rooted in history. The study of Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics goes centuries back, at the beginning of our exploration of the fundamental laws of our universe. Physicists and Chemists spent centuries making use of their understanding of heat and improving the productivity of natural resources. However, The secrets of simple things like temperature took hundreds of years to unveil themselves. In these courses, you can learn the critical concept of entropy and play the big game of energy in our universe. We have built countless engines with these ideas and struggled through industrial revolutions for a better way to use energy. But do we have infinite energy to use, or are we all headed to unavoidable ruin? Unfortunately, we cannot defeat the Physical laws and our universe is on a one-way train toward its chaotic ending.

5. Radiate Your Power

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• Courses: PHYS 110A/B (Required)
• Difficulty: 3-5/10
• Relevant Research Fields: Electrical Engineering, AMO, High Energy
• Prerequisites: excellent Highschool Electromagnetism or PHYS23-24

Your smartphone magically fetches those funny videos from the thin air. Have you ever wondered how do the data flow around us? The answer lies in Electrodynamics. As the only core subject in our everyday life, Electromagnetism is important for our modern society. From the smallest lightbulb in your room to the biggest data flow on the Internet, Electromagnetism supports our civilization everywhere. If you are confident with your math skills, especially in differential equations, then you could take the courses without taking their prerequisites. Just write an email to the professor to have a try! However, be warned: there are lots of calculations in this field. You will learn the fundamental science behind circuits, light, radios, and electric devices. If you take these courses along with the lab course PHYS127AL(required), you may even try to build your own radio and experience the excitement felt by Nikola Tesla. With such knowledge, you could radiate your power to influence our world!

6. Curve the Spacetime

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• Courses: PHYS 131 (Elective)
• Difficulty: 6/10
• Relevant Research Fields: Astronomy, Cosmology, and High Energy Physics
• Prerequisites: good understanding of PHYS104

Dreaming about jumping into a black hole? This course will teach you everything you should learn before starting a time trip. As the most significant accomplishment of Einstein, the relativity theory is an absolute beauty. The course starts from special relativity and develops towards general relativity. You will recognize the falsy concepts of dynamics in Newtonian Mechanics, and try to fix them along the path opened by the greatest Physicist in history, Albert Einstein. After these patches, you will jump right into the elegant understanding of gravity in general relativity. Einstein proposed that gravity is in fact the curvature in spacetime caused by mass, which gives clues to the formation of stars, black holes, and even our universe. If you are a science fiction fan, make sure to take this course and learn about these fancy objects. You will love this world after studying them. Can you find anything more romantic than the life of a star? However, you should be careful not to burn your brain before curving the spacetime!

7. Travel in Crystals

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• Courses: PHYS 123A/B (Elective)
• Difficulty: 5-8/10
• Relevant Research Fields: Electrical Engineering, Condensed Matter
• Prerequisites: PHYS115 series and PHYS119 series

Oh, maybe the diamond is more romantic than the stars, for the reason that it is not so far away but close to our hands. If you are interested in the material that made up our world, these two courses could explain a lot to you. Both experimental and theoretical results will appear in the courses about all kinds of crystal structures. To survive this topic, you should equip yourself with a good understanding of both Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics. If you plan to do research in condensed matter, you should definitely take these two courses. They can provide you with the necessary knowledge to understand all kinds of research in materials like diamonds and fibers. The professors who teach these courses are experts in relevant fields, so you also have a good chance to join their research groups on both experimental and theoretical condensed matters. Bonus point: cutting-edge research on semiconductors and superconductors also hides in the syllabus!

8. Fly by Night

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• Courses: PHYS 150 in the Winter quarter by Professor Zee (Elective)
• Difficulty: 7/10
• Relevant Research Fields: Nothing, but also Everything
• Prerequisites: good understanding of all four core subjects of Physics

You read it correctly! This course title is literally Fly by Night Physics. As a course from the “Zee series”, it is taught by one of the most talented professors in the Physics department, Professor Zee. He delicately wrote the textbook for this course, and you might get a signature from the textbook author if you work hard in his class. As indicated in the course title, this course teaches you some real Physical intuition about how Physics works. In contrast to pages of calculations in the traditional Fly-by-Day courses, Fly-by-Night Physicists use physical reasoning and guesses to resolve problems not only in exams but also in research. This acute sense of Physics can offer you smart answers even before calculations, and more importantly, dig deeper into the underlying universal rules. To teach such a subtle understanding, Professor Zee adapts a relatively free teaching style, filled with great stories and anecdotes in Physics history. If you pay close attention, you will absorb a lot from this course. However, make sure to work hard. If you don’t want to read the book yourself, nobody can force you to learn. Fly safe, and have fun!

9. Go Further Down The Endless Journey

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• Courses: ***
• Difficulty: */10
• Relevant Research Fields: whatever you want
• Prerequisites: whatever you got

UCSB has such a brilliant Physics department that includes tons of chances for research. Pick your favorite field of research in Physics and dig deep into it! You can also extend your interest beyond the boundary of Physics, for example, biophysics and other interdisciplinary fields. If the courses in the Physics department limit your passion, check out the courses in other departments like the Material department! They offer courses that bridge the gap between Physics and various applications, and you will step on your way to becoming a multi-field expert! Appreciating the beauty of Physics theory? You could even try to attend graduate courses for advanced study and start your theoretical research seeking the fundamental principles of our universe. You have really unbounded opportunities at UCSB. Start with your favorite courses and enjoy your splendid journey in Physics with endless excitation!