Heather Anne Yeakel

 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

 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

 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

 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

 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

Standard Deviation FistWoodBat Back Front Right Front Left Right Side Left Side

P VALUES Back Fist/ Back Wood8.64E-17 Back Fist/ Back Bat9.78E-50 Back Wood/ Back Bat4.10E-07 Right Side Fist Right Side Wood4.11E-06 Right side Fist/ Right Side Bat2.55E-38 Right Side Wood/ Right Side Bat4.80E-30 Left Side Fist/ Left Side Wood1.55E-23 Left Side Fist/ Left Side Bat3.78E-43 Left Side Wood/ Left Side Bat8.11E-03 Right Front Fist/ Right Front Wood7.28E-04 Right Front Fist/ Right Front Bat1.53E-12 Right Front Wood/ Right Front Bat4.04E-09 Left Front Fist/ Left Front Wood3.56E-08 Left Front Fist/ Left Front Bat4.52E-10 Left Front Wood/ Left Front Bat

Average Number of Blood Spatter FistWoodBat Back Front Right Front Left Right Side Left Side

 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