You are right about quantum mechanics and general relativity, which requires more advanced math, and it's hard to create good and useful analogies without it.

You are right about quantum mechanics and general relativity, which requires more advanced math, and it's hard to create good and useful analogies without it. That said, if you can handle basic high school math, you don't need any leaky abstractions for special relativity: explain experiment with speed of light measurement and it's consequences, then explain thought experiment about the light clock and mathematically derive time dilatation out of it.