Author: Elizabeth R.
Overall, today was a normal day. Well, normal in the SSP sense, meaning it was filled with exciting events, unpredictable turns, and Method of Gauss puns.
Our day started promptly at 8:01 PST, when everyone joined the LB1 zoom meeting with ‘Observatory Dr. R’ zoom backgrounds in place. Dr. R, who showed us the photo during his AMA last week, was taken by surprise. Suddenly, the room was filled with Dr. R’s, all impossible to tell apart! I assume the real(???) Dr. R was impressed by our coordination, as he specifically requested for this momentous occasion to be memorialized in today’s post. However, it is hard to tell because of the whole ‘shared display name’ thing.
Right: A Dr. R imparts the significance of this morning’s events.
Below: The meeting room, filled with Dr. R’s. Picture Creds: Chinmay
After much excitement, Dr. R began his lecture with a new and improved zoom background by ominously declaring, “The easy part [of Method of Gauss] is over!” I definitely was not scared. Of course not. ahahaha. ha. ha. :O
Above: Dr. R shows off his new Zoom background.
I didn’t have to worry though, as by the end of the LB, everything turned out okay. Dr. R delivered his most iconic line yet, (“The light is coming in pretty fast, at the speed of light!”) and we all had a fun time building programs in python to calculate pi using the Monte Carlo method. Shout out to Franklin for thinking to run his code 20 billion times through Google Collab, deriving a much more exact result that did not end in a computer crash!
During Social Block, Jonathan taught us how to play Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, and then set us loose into breakout rooms to try it out. I did not expect for my notes of the day to include phrases such as ‘severe injury,’ ‘living room,’ or ‘intact,’ but that is where the day took us!
Above: The virtual gameboard for Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Picture Creds: Chinmay
In the afternoon Work/Play Block, we finished creating a program to determine r₂ values using the scalar equation of Legrange. TA Michael helped us visualize the function we were manipulating through this nifty graph. Thanks Michael! Also, our other TA Abby won a 16 player game of Word Bomb, but what’s new?
Above: Michael’s helpful graph.
When I signed up for this blog post spot, I picked a date near the end of the program, wanting to get in the swing of SSP before I had to worry about formulating something so permanent. I definitely did not anticipate time moving so fast, or that there is no ‘typical’ day in SSP. Now I know that a ‘typical’ day of SSP is ‘atypical;’ everyday is exciting, unique, and better than the one preceding it. I am so lucky to get to learn among my peers in this collaborative environment, one where we all care so much about each other and the work we are doing. I could not have imagined a more perfect summer. I look forward to the next two weeks with all of you, and life beyond!
Author: Hi all! I’m Elizabeth, a rising senior from Placer County, CA. In my free time, I enjoy paddleboarding at the lake with my family, skiing through the Sierra Nevadas, playing electric guitar, and listening to really loud music.
