Determining the Cause of Different Patterns of Blood Spatter

1. Determining the Cause of Different Patterns of Blood Spatter Heather Anne Yeakel

2. Rationale • The reason I choose this experiment was to begin to further understand the field of forensic science with regard to blood spatter • I hoped to discover weather or not weapons that cause blunt force trauma would create different patterns of blood spatter

3. Research • To create my hypothesis I researched blood spatter and the reasons spatter patterns differ • Specifically, I researched high, medium, and low velocity spatter and the different causes of these spatters • Also, because blunt force trauma weapons mainly cause medium velocity spatter, that was researched further

4. Hypothesis • After research, a hypothesis was developed that stated: • If a fist, plank of wood, and bat impact a sponge, then their spatter patterns will be both numerically and visually different

5. Materials • The materials I used to conduct this experiment are: • 1 Card Board Box • 1 Sponge • 1 Bat • 1 Plank of Wood • 1 Human Fist • 1 Measurement Grid (3cm) • White Paper • Fake Blood • 44 g of Corn Starch • 80 mL water • 160 mL Corn Syrup • Red Food Coloring • Green Food Coloring

6. Procedure • Fake blood was created according to the recipe on the materials slide • For each trial a sponge was soaked in the blood solution and then placed in a cardboard box lined with white paper • The weapons were used to strike the sponge • This was done three times with each weapon and the paper was changed between each trial • The spatters were then analyzed using a grid system and the data was recorded

7. Data

8. Data Continued

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11. Conclusion • It was learned in this experiment that a fist, a plank of wood, and a bat created different blood spatter patterns both visually and numerically • If further experimentation was to be done a device should be created to guide the weapon to the sponge to ensure the weapons impact the sponge at the same angle • To further expand on this topic this experiment could be preformed with weapons that create high velocity spatter