Scholarship Symposium

Presenter: Scott Morris
Faculty Advisor: Fonsie Guilaran

The focus of this project is to measure the chaotic behavior of water droplets under various conditions and, if possible, to use these measurements to calculate the Feigenbaum bifurcation constant, δ. According to several published works, the driprate of water does not smoothly and continuously increase over time in response to increasing pressure. Instead, the falling droplet's frequency sharply doubles over distinct intervals until the system eventually becomes chaotic. By adopting and utilizing several different experimental techniques, this research chronicles the efforts in documenting this odd, counterintuitive behavior.

Presenter: Katherine Ward
Faculty Advisor: Geoffrey Poore

The goal of this research project is to experimentally determine the resistance coefficients of viscous fluids and compare to theoretical predictions. This is done by tying a string to a Bluetooth PASCO Smart Cart, running the string over a pulley, and attaching a metal sphere to the string. The sphere is submerged in a viscous fluid, such as water, oil, or honey. When the system is released from rest, it experiences linear drag force that acts on the falling mass. The application of Stokes' Law and the data collected from the smart cart allows for a determination of the viscosity of the chosen fluid.

Presenter: Jonathan Van Neste
Faculty Advisor: Fonsie Guilaran

Neutrinos exist in three known flavors which they can oscillate between during neutrino oscillations. A common way to study these oscillations is at nuclear reactors, where electron antineutrinos are emitted towards detectors. One such experiment was performed at the nuclear reactor in Gösgen, Switzerland. Three detectors were 37.9, 45.9, and 64.7 m from the reactor. The Gösgen experimentalists examined Χ² values, creating an exclusion region for the two oscillation parameters. The results from the Gösgen experiments, however, do not fit the standard three neutrino model. A possible new model adds a fourth neutrino, called a “sterile” neutrino. To examine this model, we constructed a computational model of the Gösgen experiments that reproduces their exclusion region. Then, by adding a routine that graphed ΔΧ², we found the four-neutrino analysis fits the data better and favors four specific values for Δm41^2 which are 100 times larger than currently accepted values for Δm_31^2