by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Student Lauren Anderson said math and nature go hand in hand.
Anderson used matrices to answer a question a piano instructor posed about why keys on a piano are arranged the way they are.
"My immediate reaction was to approach it mathematically," she said.
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Anderson presented her work Tuesday in the SUB as part of the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference.
About 300 students participated in the conference, doing oral presentations, poster presentations and panel discussions.
Judges awarded prizes of $100 to $400.
The result of Anderson's research was that there are hundreds of possibilities for keyboard arrangements, but the ideal structures have a unique and balanced result.
Anderson said the structure came about because it is the natural pitch progression of vocal cords.
She said it is no coincidence that the math matched up.
"Anything in nature can be explained by math," she said. "Anything that's found to be perfect in nature is found to be perfect in math."
Student Amy Cook, who did a presentation on Spanish and Russian pronouns, said the conference is a good resource for undergraduate students.
Cook said she had to do a public presentation as part of the honors program.
"I hate presenting," she said. "So, I chose this because I thought it'd be less stressful."
Cook said she recommends that students participate, because they'll have to learn to present eventually.
"It's a good opportunity," she said. "It's a low-stress way to polish those skills."
Student Kathleen Shurkin presented her research on supermassive black holes.
Shurkin's research found a correlation between the amount of power generated when black holes pull in matter and the amount of power they release.
Shurkin said she measured the power by examining radio and X-ray images of black holes.
Galaxy clusters emit tremendous amounts of radiation, and supermassive black holes are in the center of a galaxy cluster, Shurkin said.
When a black hole sends out a jet stream, it creates a cavity where there is no radiation, making it possible to measure the energy that is released, Shurkin said.
Shurkin said her research contributes to studies in black hole evolution and accretion, the process of matter being sucked into a black hole.
