CUB Astro Day 12

Today marked day 11 of our SSP journey! We started off with a 3-hour physics lecture by our beloved Dr. Z, where proving Kepler’s second law was our “warm-up.” Dr. Z then walked us through elliptical orbits, Newton’s law of gravity, and even how to apply integration to derive Kepler’s 3rd law of the universe.

After our first lecture, we had our lunch break, where Reema, Sophia, Sam, Penelope, Hooker, Keira, and I explored the beautiful (albeit blisteringly hot) CU Boulder campus, before heading back to the Sommers-Bausch observatory for more lecture.

In the afternoon lecture, Dr. D taught us the complexities of energy, momentum, center of mass, and blew our minds with a trick question about the application of F=ma. After the second fulfilling physics lecture of the day, we headed off to dinner, then promptly went to the computer lab to finish coding our projectile motion simulation — we love PSets! Our amazing TA Treya then hosted an immaculate tea party on the roof of the observatory…before the thunderstorm.

Overall today was such a productive and fun day. It’s so hard to believe we’ve only been here for a week and a half; SSP genuinely feels like family, and as difficult it may be, it’s 100x more rewarding.

With gratitude,
Anabel Weinstein

Anabel

Anabel

SSP Participant

Hi! My name is Anabel and I’m from San Diego, California. I absolutely love everything physics, earth science, and research, and in my free time I enjoy hiking, debating, baking, and blasting music in the car.