Fingerprinting

1. Wood Glue method

- Where are the pores found? Are they regularly spaced?

Pores are found throughout the surface of our skin, and are regularly spaced all over the epidermis of our skin.

- Are the lines of your print equally spaced throughout?

Yes

2. Cyanoacrylate (superglue) Fuming method

- If the contrast of the white print against the black background is still too faint for a good photograph to be captured, what could be done to enhance the fingerprint?

You can use more superglue to fume the print for a longer period of time or oil your fingers before creating fingerprints on the plastic sheet used so that the print is more obvious and visible

3. Iodine Fuming method

- What are the possible substances that may be used to render the prints more permanent?

The paper used as the base can affect how long the prints last for

- Why does the print disappear?

The prints appear on the paper because the iodine sublimes. However this process is reversible and thus 

4. Powder Dusting method

Questions for the lesson:

- What is magnetic powder dusting and how does it work?

magnetic powder is used on nonmagnetic surfaces. With magnetic powder, there is no brush with fibers to touch and possibly damage the print. The powder is not itself magnetic, but is attracted by a magnet and carried as whiskers by a magnetic wand. Nothing but the powder itself touches the print. The wand is a closed, hollow tube containing a magnet on a rod. When the rod is pushed in, the magnet is located I the end of the tube and the powder clings to that end. When the rod is pulled out, the magnet is moved to the center of the tube and the powder falls off. With the rod in and a cluster of powder whiskers on the end, you are ready to dust for latent prints.

Creating my own fingerprint!

Questions for this activity:

- Compare the fingerprint patterns on your right and left hand. Are they mirror images of each other?

- What kind of patterns do you see?

whorl

- Do the loops curve in the same or in different directions in different fingers?

they curve in different directions

- Compare the size of the patterns e.g. how many ridges make up a loop?