Spring 2027

Physics of Sports

Physics of Sports applies physical principles to competitive sports like track and field, cycling, archery, golf, football, and basketball to enhance performance understanding.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Jim Reardon4.1/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jim Reardon

Homework packets were long and due on Wednesdays, while lectures involved writing on the board with limited explanation, requiring attendance for both homework and Fridays.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain how sport performance is governed by universal physical principles.

  • Solve problems relevant to sport performance proficiently regarding both quantitative and qualitive applications of these physical principles.

  • Explain the significance of sport-related measurements and observations made in the presence of statistical and systematic uncertainties.

  • Communicate effectively with scientific peers and the public regarding physical principles and measurements and observations relevant to sport performance.

  • Be able to continue to educate themselves regarding the physical principles relevant to sport performance after completion of the course.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A. Not open to students with credit forPHYSICS 103, 201, 207, or 247.

PHYSICS 106

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Jim Reardon

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.82/5 from 11 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.8/5 raw quality · 1.8/5 difficulty · 9 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Jim Reardon

Jim Reardon taught a class where exams and homework were described as challenging or long, though he allowed students to bring a sheet to exams. Students could make up lost points using extra credit worksheets or complete test corrections, with some noting unlimited tries on worksheets if all questions were answered correctly.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Mitch McNanna

A past student described the class as easy and stated that Mitch McNanna was super nice.

MITCH MCNANNA is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1500
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 1500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Jim Reardon

Jim Reardon taught a fun and accessible physics course that students found engaging, noting he made the subject enjoyable for non-STEM majors.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.62 GPA, 79.9% A/AB (n=154 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.74 GPA, 87.9% A/AB (n=289 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.61 GPA, 80.4% A/AB (n=163 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jim Reardon

Homework packets were long and due on Wednesdays, while lectures involved writing on the board with limited explanation, requiring attendance for both homework and Fridays.

Past student reviews · Jim Reardon

Students appreciated the generous extra credit opportunities and the ability to bring a cheat sheet into exams, which made the challenging material more manageable.

Topics

  • Physical principles applied to track and field, cycling, archery, golf, football, and basketball.
  • Universal physical principles governing sport performance.
  • Statistical and systematic uncertainties in sport-related measurements.

Skills

  • Solving quantitative and qualitative physics problems related to sport performance.
  • Interpreting sport-related measurements and observations considering statistical and systematic uncertainties.
  • Communicating scientific principles and measurements to peers and the public.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
PHYSICS 106 · Spring 2027

Physics of Sports

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:754:026449",
    "course_id": "PHYSICS 106",
    "course_uid": "course_b7a77968024569b0268eac9a",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026449",
    "source_subject_id": "754",
    "title": "Physics of Sports",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "65896f93cf5a5af4e869f6ede25835dea7592c7dac30a93abf90fcbaca87f1eb",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}