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The Math of Forensic Science
The Math of Forensic Science
Since I was a child, I was always intrigued by the field of forensic science. Watching CSI: Miami
and Law & Order: SVU, I was exposed to the wonders of fingerprint identification, blood spatter
analysis, and even bullet trajectory. However, back then, it didn’t occur to me the complexity and
the relationship that this field had to math. It wasn’t until I began learning the fundamentals of
math and the application of mathematics in the real world that I discovered the role math played
in this specific field. This exploration will explore the use of mathematics, more specifically
trigonometry and calculus in the field of forensic science to give me an in depth understanding of
Being in my second semester of senior year, I am still uncertain to a certain extent of what major
I want to pursue for an undergraduate degree and what career I want to achieve. Having always
loved math as its application ceases to amaze me, investigating how it is used in forensic science
will help me determine whether or not I want to pursue a degree in forensic science or in
criminology. Understanding how what I have learned in math throughout the years can be
applied to situations such as forensic science will either make me realize that I want to pursue
perpetrator was, was the person defending themselves, or even when/where the attack was
started. All of this of course, depends on the nature of that specific case however, generally, they
are looking to determine what happened. They may also use this to determine the height of the
Simple trigonometry functions can be used to calculate the impact angle that causes the blood
droplet. The impact angle is used to refer to the angle formed when the horizontal axis by an
object hitting a plane surface. This can be done by measuring the length and width of the
bloodstain and using the simple sine rule. Then, the inverse of the sine rule is found using a
calculator to determine the angle. The length of the bloodstain is used for the hypotenuse and the
sine= opposite/hypotenuse
The use of mathematics that is used is simply astonishing, as people often wonder when they will
ever use math in their daily life or when math is ever useful but in reality, everything has some
A new formula has been created to determine the whether or not a victim took a blow standing
up or not. This formula helps forensics analysts quickly eliminate possibilities to get closer to the
truth in a shorter amount of time. Not only does math help find the source, but it also saves
investigators time. This formula takes into account the height of two drops and not only one as
the previous technique did. It tells whether or not the blood spatters came from the same source.
While analysts may attempt to use logical reasoning to determine this, it is necessary to have
valid evidence, hence the use of mathematics. This tells the person’s position whereas the
previous example told the where the direction and area the blood came from.
Z0 refers to the height of the blood when it left the body
The long axis of the blood spatter can be used to determine the area and point of convergence.
The point of converge is the area where two blood spatters meet. A line is drawn from the long
axis of each blood spatter and the point where they all meet is known as the area of convergence,
which is the place where the blood originated from. This is done using something known as the
“stringing” method. This allows the analysts to determine where the victim was. There are
programs such as HemoSpat and BackTrack that does the math automatically and calculates the
angle of impact and all associated math such as the area of origin which uses more complicated
mathematical processes.. An example showing how the area of convergence is found is shown
below.
Using Newton’s Principle of Cooling, an equation using logarithms helps forensic scientists in
Imaginary Scenerio
Police officers were called to a parking lot where they found a dead body. Upon arrival, the
coroner checked the temperature of dead person. This was around 10:30 pm. The temperature
was found to be 76.5o F. Let’s assume that the room temperature was 60.0o F. The time of death is
calculated as follows:
This information is then given to police officers or detectives to determine things like if there
was something strange about the victims whereabouts at that time of day, or even possibly to rule
After studying and acknowledging how much math composes forensic science, to me, it seems as
if without math this field would not only be difficult, but completely non-existent. It makes me
wonder how our ancestors solved crimes without the fundamentals of this subject. Also, to me,
forensic science’s backbone is math. Math is what makes us the subject. As seen with the blood
spatter, without taking into account where the blood came from or where the person who is the
victim was positioned, how would we be able to determine or even rule out possible suspects?
Seems impossible to me. Forensic science is a part of law enforcement which is a crucial part of
society no matter what country, region, or even continent. However, specifically within the
United States, as crime rates are rising, the demand for the use of forensic science is increasing
and that means that more work needs to be done in a shorter period of time. Also, since crimes
are a very sensitive topic, it is important for scientists to remain as accurate and close as possible
to the truth. Using math, forensic scientists are able to more precisely reconstruct a crime scene
and determine certain aspects that are vital to solving the crime in a shorter period of time. The
application of mathematics in this field is fascinating but most importantly, it is an extreme
necessity.
Works cited
Freeman, Shanna. "HowStuffWorks "Stringing, Sine and Spatter Shapes"." HowStuffWorks, n.d.
Web. 4 Jan 2014. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/bloodstain-pattern-analysis3.htm>.
Medda, Suman. "How to Calculate the Angle of Impact | eHow." eHow, n.d. Web. 4 Jan 2014.
<http://www.ehow.com/how_8638726_calculate-angle-impact.html>.
Roberts, Donna. "Logarithmic Application to Forensics." Regentsprep.org, n.d. Web. 4 Jan 2014.
<http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/math/algtrig/ATE9/logsResource.htm>.
Unknown. "Equation: Blood Spatter a Math Matter - Wired Science." Wired Science, n.d. Web. 4
Jan 2014. <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/st_equation_bloodspatter/>.
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