The Height from which Blood Falls and how it affects the Diameter

The purpose of the this Lab is to find a connection between the diameter of a
blood spatter drop and the height at which it fell from. Blood Spatter is used at crime
scenes to help investigators determine the cause of death and help to identify the
weapon used. Analyzing the size of the drop can tell us what angle the person was
standing at. Did the Blood fall when someone was standing, falling, or was the person
on the ground?... Blood droplets provide lots of information and provide key details
when solving a crime.

Hypothesis
If I drop the blood from a larger height, than the drop will be much smaller. If I
were to drop it from a low height, then the drop would be much smaller.

Materials
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Pipette
Meter Stick/ Measuring Stick
Simulated Blood
White Paper
Paper Towels

Procedures
- Lay a large piece of paper out on the floor
- Have your partner stack and hold two meter sticks on top of each, other
over the paper
- Squeeze your pipette in the beaker of blood to fill the pipette
- squeeze blood from the pipette onto the white paper from different heights
- measure the diameter of your different blood drops
- record your data in a data table

Data Collection/ Table

Height (cm)

60

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

Diameter (mm)

11

14

15

17

15

18

17

17

160

190

18

19

Data Analysis

Conclusion
The initial hypothesis was not correct. I believed that the higher up you drop it
from the smaller the diameter would be. Based on the data, it turns out that the larger
the height will result in a larger diameter. During this I lab I learned, that based on the
diameter of blood drops, the height at which they fell from can be found.
1. How did you control any external variables in your
experiment?
To keep the drops from being inaccurate, we made sure that all air bubbles were
removed from the pipette. We tried to keep the meter sticks straight at all times and
worked hard to keep the drops from overlapping each other.
2. If a violent murder occurred as the result of the killer wielding
a weapon over his or her head from side to side would result in a line of
blood spots on the ceiling or walls, similar patterns on walls could be the
result of the victim being flung across the room. If the victim crawled on
the floor or the body was dragged, then there would be smear or trails on
the floor. Smudges, smears, bloody fingerprints or handprints on furniture

or doors could indicate a struggle in the room. Based on the blood spatter
patterns found at Annas house, what do you think happened?
Based on the evidence and blood spatters found at Annas house I believe that she was
either struck and blood was flown from her head into small dots, or blood was dripping
from a weapon and or human onto the ground creating small drops in a linear pattern.
3. Describe how the biomedical science professional
introduced in this activity would assist in Annas case?
Having the ability to measure and analyze drops of blood is extremely helpful when
looking for an explanation. Based on the drop size and volume of blood, one can figure
out the height at which the blood fell from and how much was dropped. This information
is useful because it tells us how Anna was possibly killed, the weapon used (if there was
a weapon at all) and how it was used.