If Time Slow Down

As SSP comes to a close, I can’t help but wish that SSP was longer and that I had more time with my newfound friends. When I first arrived, I didn’t think I would build such deep connections with my peers but a myriad of experiences has allowed me to build some unparalleled friendships.

    Laying on the grass staring up at the stars, laughing about Jupiter; sitting under a tree whose leaves carve out a view of the Big Dipper; trying to do the lift from Dirty Dancing; running through the sprinklers showing up to observations drenched; sauntering on Pearl Street in the rain and vibing to Lumineer songs; working on PSets until we are kicked out of SBO to get some sleep; staying up late learning about everyone’s romance with astrophysics; looking at the ground while walking to avoid stepping in mounds of geese poop; making sand angles; wading in a pond full of algae; dancing in the rain just mere hours before observing with a completely clear sky full of stars; running 10 miles while watching the sun rise; playing volleyball in pitch dark; rolling across the turf as fast as you can; biking in the rain and freezing; playing “Hey There Delilah” so badly it’s unrecognizable to the audience; synchronously doing backflips off the diving boards; jumping and successfully catching a rock on a rock climb; hiking up the Flatirons so high that Denver was visible from the top; jamming to the “American Pie” under the dim red glow of the observatory; trying relentlessly for hours to figure out the uncertainty of the number of apples that could fit into the Earth; wearing trashbags for the fashion show; alternating saying “hi” with our eyes crossed; feeling accomplished after scoring five points in foosball; solving the “cornmaze” in two minutes; pretending to be 18 to ride the GoKarts; making a TikTok on the top of a parking garage.

    This montage of memories led me to start thinking one night, while in the mildewy grass, about the way we could slow the passage of time enabling us to spend more time at SSP:

    According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, by traveling at speeds close to those of light, our frame of reference would be slower compared to that of an observer. Although a nice idea to the problem of slowing down time, finding enough energy to accelerate 35 teenagers to the soles of light would be impossible.

Alternatively, I suppose since our campus is located in Colorado, next to JILA, the world’s official time-keeping institution, we could change the oscillations of JILA’s strontium clock slowing down time officially. Breaking into JILA, however, would require breaking quite a few doors, not to mention quite a few laws.

Well, there is always the suggestion of altering space-time itself and changing the properties of time, but I couldn’t begin to tell you how that would work.

In conclusion, there is unfortunately not a feasible way to slow time down. I’ll just have to treasure every moment I have spent with all my smaaaart peers. Thank you, Mr. sir ma’am sir, for making this summer unforgettable.

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Anoushka C

I am a junior at Berkeley High School interested pursuing theoretical physics and engineering. I enjoy playing soccer and climbing trees in my free time!