OBSERVATION OF THE PARAFFIN TEST, FOOTPRINT AND TOOL PRINT

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OBSERVATION
The understanding we acquire from carrying out an experiment with different materials
for paraffin tests and impression evidence by obtaining a three-dimensional footprint and tool
marking impression.
The goal of the paraffin test is to differentiate between positive, negative, and false positives from
gunpowder, which may be deposited on the skin after firing a weapon. Since we didn't finish the
experiment, we didn't see what happened, but one thing we observe is that when the wax is too
hot, there's a chance to burn the skin, and when the wax is warm, it can't form stronger bonds that
cause a failed result. In our experiment, one of my teammates had skin burns because of too
much hot wax.

When we're doing the procedure to get the impression of someone's footprint using
Plaster of Paris and water, we accidentally pour so much water that it turns out to be so long
before it hardens. When we pour the mixture into the bucket of sand, the mixture takes only a
couple of minutes to harden, and when we touch it, it produces heat when it's in the process of
hardening. The heat it produces may compare to a lukewarm water. After we wait for some time,
about 15 minutes or so, the mixture completely hardens, the liquid mixture becomes solid, and it
creates the impression of a footprint when we carefully wash it with running water. As we observe,
we need a perfect mixture to avoid side effects, and we do this in the right way. The right texture is
when it's like a pancake mixture.

We use alginate to get the impression of tool marks by mixing 1 sachet of alginate with a
small amount of water. We usually mix it really quickly, 1 to 2 minutes, and put it into a tool to
extract an impression of it. The common mistake we encounter is that when we use fast-setting
alginate powder, it only takes 1 to 2 minutes before it fully dries and becomes like a jelly. The
alginate mixture cannot extract a perfect tool mark impression on a sideways surface; it only works
perfectly on a flat surface and other similar objects.

SUMMARY
The study focuses on the use of paraffin tests, foot prints, and tool prints. In paraffin test,
differentiate between positive, negative, and false positives from gunpowder deposited on skin
after firing a weapon. The researchers observed that too hot wax can burn the skin, and warm wax
can't form stronger bonds, causing failed results. The procedure to get the impression of
someone's footprint using Plaster of Paris and water was accidentally poured too long before it
hardened. The mixture took only a couple of minutes to harden, producing heat similar to that of a
cellphone after 3 hours of online gaming. After 15 minutes, the mixture completely hardened,
creating the impression of a footprint. The study also uses alginate to get the impression of tool
marks, mixing 1 sachet with a small amount of water. However, the fast-setting alginate powder
only takes 1 to 2 minutes to fully dry and become like a jelly.

CONCLUSION
The result of our experiments is not perfect, but we learned a lesson that will help us
someday, and next time we will apply it. We found out what we need to do and prioritize. For
example, if we do a paraffin test, we will make sure that before we drop the wax, we should cool it
down first and wait for the right temperature to avoid burning the skin. Secondly, in the foot print
and tool print, we need a perfect mix of materials but sadly we have error on this. We didn’t got the
right mixture on it, but we found a solution to finished the activity.

ANALYSIS
As we observe everything that we do, if the procedure is wrong, we cannot produce a
good quality of work. For example, in what happened to our teammates, he had scars on his hand
because of dropping wax at high temperature. Because of this, we know that we failed. In the
footprint, our teammates did the wrong procedure, which caused us to wait for another time to get
hardens that we wanted. Also, in the tool print, they did it the wrong way because they used fast-
setting alginate powder, which caused it to dry quickly and become like a jelly.