Blood Splatter

These were discussed and generated by my partner, Cheryl and I so we both have similar answers:

Blood splatter 1: The shape of the blood splatter is one large drop of blood with small drops surrounding it. This

is probably created by drops of blood dropping onto a same spot. This means that the surrounding drops of blood are the result of blood dropping onto other drops of blood already on the surface and thus the impact resulting in small drops of blood being scattered around.

Blood splatter 2: This blood splatter consists of 2 main areas which contain larger amounts of blood and small droplets of blood surrounding them. As the drops of blood are not complete, they look like they may have been smudged, such as by another object coming into contact with the splatter. May have been created through a gunshot?

Blood splatter 3: The shape of the blood splatter is long and slants slightly upwards from left to right, and is more narrow on the left side than the right side. This means that the direction of the blood was north east. This splatter is most likely created by blood being flung off a swinging item that was bloody.

Blood splatter 4: The blood splatter covers a large area and consists of many smaller oval shaped splatters which have drops of blood dripping downwards. The splatter looks like it was created intentionally due to the relatively regular pattern of the blood splatter. It could have been created using a product such as red paint.

Blood Splatter Pattern from a Laboratory Experiment:

What is the shape of the blood splatters?

Circles and ovals, of varying lengths and widths.

Describe any other characteristics of the splatter.

- Jagged edges

- 2 distinct areas(inner and outer) the inner portion being a darker colour than the outer portion

- blood dropped vertically creates a blood splatter in the shape of a circle while blood dropped an an angle creates one that is in the shape of an oval, with increase in angle causing increase in the length and decrease in diameter of the blood splatter.

What are the factors that affect the shape of the blood splatter? Name as many as possible.

- angle at which the blood drop reaches the place of contact

- the distance blood is dropped at from the point of contact

- the surface of point of contact

- amount of blood that is dropped

- force used to create blood splatter(high impact/low impact)

- viscosity of blood used

Generate some hypotheses from the blood splatter patterns observed above.

1) The greater the height from which the blood is dropped, the larger the size of the blood splatter

2) The greater the angle of the plane used, the greater the length of the blood drop and the smaller the width of the blood drop

3) When a droplet of blood strikes a horizontal surface at 90 degrees it produces a circular stain. While droplets of blood that strike the surface at an angle produce a oval shaped stain

2. If dropped from the same height from the plane, the length of the blood drops will increase and the width of the blood drops will decrease as the angle of the plane on which the blood is dropped increases.