9:00 a.m.
The Fourth of July at SSP CUB began with a lecture on optics and telescopes. We saw an unpublished PhET simulation by Dr. Dubson, made images of a candle using a lens and a piece of paper, and discussed why people’s eyeballs get too long. We learned that Jerry Nelson, who invented the segmented mirror telescope, was an SSP alumnus.
12:00 p.m.
During lunch, we enjoyed views of the mountains and lakes at CUB.
1:15 p.m.
In our second lecture, Dr. Fallscheer taught us how to determine mean anomaly, eccentric anomaly, and time of perihelion passage for our asteroids. She told us that we would learn how to predict the future—the future positions of our asteroids. It involves many rotation matrices. Dr. Fallscheer mentioned that tomorrow we will study Gauss’s method for determining the position and velocity of an asteroid based on three observations. He wrote a book about it called Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium in Sectionibus Conicis Solem Ambientium. I have taken inspiration from this title in Latin.
5:00 p.m.
We rode a bus to the city of Longmont and attended a Fourth of July street party. We enjoyed live music, games, food, a drone show, and fireworks. SSP participants caused an ice cream truck to run out of pineapple sorbet.
About me: My name is Nicla (pronounced /ˈniklə/) and I am a rising senior at Boston Latin School. In my free time I enjoy going to museums, baking, and learning languages.
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SSP International is a nonprofit offering inspiring science immersion experiences. Founded in 1959, its mission is to provide opportunities to accelerate learning, doing and belonging in science. SSP International’s flagship program is Summer Science Program, a leading education experience for exceptional high school students in astrophysics, biochemistry, genomics and more.
