who has the closest fingerprints to mine my mother, father,

[tmd523]

Im having a real hard time on a hypothesis and variables (independent,dependant and with constants? I'm not sure if there is anyway to measure this in metric or in time I'm not sure if anyone is good at this could you please help me ??

[SGelman]

Hi Tiffany,

Basically your hypothesis is just what you predict your results will be. Based on your knowledge of science, make an educated guess about how things will turn out. For your variables, think about what will remain constant and unaffected by other factors [independent variable] and what you don't know; what will be affected by the independent variable [dependent variable]. Check out the Science Fair Project Guide on this site and see if that helps.

Here's another site that might be useful:
http://www.niles-hs.k12.il.us/jacnau/IJ ... pes%20More?

I'm not sure about what you mean on measuring in metric or time...I don't think time will affect your experiment at all. Since the fingerprints are small, metric might also be difficult, but you can always magnify the prints and highlight similarities to show how you obtain your results.


Susan

[tmd523]

That sight was very helpful as to the experiement but I'm very confused as to what the variables should be I need to figure then out before I do the experiment but I did like the information on that site what should I do for a variable the inndependant is the question I ve asked to begin with right then the variable should be me enlarging them is that going to count as measuring I need to measure with this science project I'm just not sure what to measure any ideas how to make my board look like a million dollars ? I need to get a good grade it's not like I'm not trying this is hard but challenging which is good Thanks Susan any ideas will be greatly appreciated Thanks Tiffany

[wildfirefox]

Tiffany:

Independent variable is what you will be changing. For example, since your finger prints is imprinted on your finger tips since you were born, there's no way you can change your genetics to alter your finger prints as you get older. But, what happen if you're being exposed to contaminants, or some kind of external influences. For example, acids, surgeries, accidents, genetic disorder during the time the fetus is inside the mother's womb, or many many other possibilities.

Dependent variables is what you observe that may or may not change. What if you put acid on your finger tips, but nothing change (BUT DON'T DO THIS ON YOUR SKIN OR ANYONE ELSE!!! ) What happen those who have surgeries on their fingers, such as plastic surgery for finger repairs or skin grafting? How about the variety of genetic disorders that effect the fetus development, especially on the skin?

This will be a project that you will remember for quite some time. It's quite unique.

[geoffbruton]

Hi Tiffany,

This sounds like an awesome science fair project! There are a couple of things that you should consider:

1. When acquiring fingerprints from the families in your study, are you planning on studying all ten fingerprints, or perhaps just comparing say, the right index fingers? Why?

2. Are you planning on just looking for pattern types or the degree of similarity in the minutiae? What has your background research shown on the number of different types of patterns and the variability / uniqueness of fingerprints?

3. Do you know any identical twins? This would be an excellent study if you could incorporate it into your project. Identical twins share the same DNA - but have different fingerprints! This has all to do with the formation of the friction ridge pattern during the fetus' time in the womb. There have been some tremendous studies on this subject, so please see what you can find.

All in all, this sounds like a great project - good luck!
Geoff.

[tmd523]

Tiffany:

So my Dad had half of his finger cut off could that be used as change ??? in my variable? and input i s greatly appreciated








Independent variable is what you will be changing. For example, since your finger prints is imprinted on your finger tips since you were born, there's no way you can change your genetics to alter your finger prints as you get older. But, what happen if you're being exposed to contaminants, or some kind of external influences. For example, acids, surgeries, accidents, genetic disorder during the time the fetus is inside the mother's womb, or many many other possibilities.

Dependent variables is what you observe that may or may not change. What if you put acid on your finger tips, but nothing change (BUT DON'T DO THIS ON YOUR SKIN OR ANYONE ELSE!!! ) What happen those who have surgeries on their fingers, such as plastic surgery for finger repairs or skin grafting? How about the variety of genetic disorders that effect the fetus development, especially on the skin?

This will be a project that you will remember for quite some time. It's quite unique.

[wildfirefox]

So my Dad had half of his finger cut off could that be used as change ??? in my variable? and input i s greatly appreciated

Errr...that would be factor rather than variable. If his finger is chopped off, I don't think you have to worry about finger prints any more . If it's something more like when you're exposed to chemical, and the chemical altered your finger prints, due to continually skin peeling, or chemical burn, heat burn, scars, laceration, or some kind of skin damage that alter the finger prints.

[tmd523]

So what in gods name am I going to do for the whole change part I'm so confused that and the measure part this is my 1st science fair report and I guess I didn't think this one thru thouroughly huh help


So my Dad had half of his finger cut off could that be used as change ??? in my variable? and input i s greatly appreciated

Errr...that would be factor rather than variable. If his finger is chopped off, I don't think you have to worry about finger prints any more . If it's something more like when you're exposed to chemical, and the chemical altered your finger prints, due to continually skin peeling, or chemical burn, heat burn, scars, laceration, or some kind of skin damage that alter the finger prints.

[wildfirefox]

Tiffany, let's approach this a bit more clearly. Let's take you as a guinea pig for the experimentation example:

1. Finger prints don't change drastically over time. When you're born, you're given a set of finger prints that remain the same from your birth, to your death. The changes are so little that it doesn't even considered to be important. With that in mind, we can use that as dependent variable.

2. Now, let's take other things into considerations that may change your finger prints, which is independent variables. For examples:

• a. Continually skin peeling, such as cancer or a skin disease.
  b. Chemical burn if you're working in labs or at chemical companies, or even because of a sickness treatment.
  c. Heat burn from some accident or accidents
  d. Scars from skin diseases, or a person may be inflicting damages on the fingers by touching or grabbing sharp objects
  e. Laceration, because someone has been working at the mills that use a lot of sanding equipment, or rough materials.
  f. Some kind of skin disease that causes damages, which may alter the shape-size of the finger tips, and skin texture that ultimately change the finger prints.

3. Then how about control? Control would be the period of time between your birth, and the time that you're exposed to something that change your finger prints. If you're using a large amount of people, compare those who don't have issues that change their finger prints, to those who have issues that result in their fingers print being altered.

Does that clear things up a bit more?

[wildfirefox]

Andddddd...to boost, I knew I forgot something...

You want to compare your finger prints to the rest of your family. How about extending that a bit further?

1. Compare yourself to your current family. Then to your grand parents, your aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc..

2. How about researching other families. Do the family members have similar finger prints like yours?

3. What about life changing issues? Did your family members, or the other families, suffered from some kind of sickness or skin damages?

There are many ways in approaching this. Chose one, and we'll be more than glad to help you out to the extent of our knowledge.

[geoffbruton]

Hi Tiffany,

Hopefully wildfirefox has helped you figure out which of your variables is which!

Fingerprints are a truly fascinating subject, so hopefully you will enjoy doing this science fair project.

The only thing that I would add - and hopefully you will be able to locate in your background research - is that fingerprint formation is 'set' from before you are born. They remain the same until after death and decomposition begins. Even during growth, the 'details' within the fingerprint (and, of course, the overall pattern) never changes. Consider drawing a fingerprint on a balloon. Now, when you blow up the balloon, the lines and their relative position do not change - they simply expand. This is the same thing that happens as we grow - our fingerprints stay the same.

The *only* way fingerprints can change during life is from scarring. I have several scars from a number of different occasions that have altered the fine detail within my fingerprints - but the patterns do not change. So, if you are planning on studying the patterns *only* (which I would recommend) even scars will not change the pattern you observe.

The damage caused by a variety of different factors will not truly change the fingerprint. The different types of "minutiae" (a term you may want to look up) cannot be changed - in that, for example, if a ridge splits into two (called a bifurcation), no amount of damage is going to change it into, say, a ridge ending. And certainly no amount of damage can change a whorl into a loop.

Historically, some criminals have attempted to remove or alter their fingerprints - either by corrosive chemicals, such as acids, or by skin grafts. Since the layer of the skin from which fingerprints are formed is relatively deep, the damage caused by the action of a corrosive chemical very often simply causes a great deal of damage (and pain!), and ultimately, the original fingerprints resurface. The use of skin grafts, whilst theoretically being able to 'change' the characteristics, often produces such horrendous (and painful!) scars, that the 'trick' is easily found out.

The databases that are searched when a suspects' fingerprints are entered contains millions of prints for comparison. The list of scarred fingerprints, however, is relatively small - and are very readily identifiable since they are so unique. The reason why these databases are so useful is because the fingerprints (and scarred areas) do not change - and the relative positions of the detail within the fingerprints is readily recordable, and identifiable.

Like I said, this is a fascinating subject, so I sincerely hope that you decide to stick with it. Expanding your project to include as many different family groups is a great idea, and I can't wait to see your results.

Good luck!
Geoff.

[tmd523]

Actually it does a bit say my mom is a cosmetologist who uses alot of chemicals my dad delivers packages and my grandparrents one was a truck driver so I may have some luck with my mom but that might be it Im trying to think of the experiment itself don't I have tgo perform it 3 times or is that not true for a science fair project ??? my constant would be the prints themselves because they don't change ? help??[




quote="wildfirefox"]Tiffany, let's approach this a bit more clearly. Let's take you as a guinea pig for the experimentation example:

1. Finger prints don't change drastically over time. When you're born, you're given a set of finger prints that remain the same from your birth, to your death. The changes are so little that it doesn't even considered to be important. With that in mind, we can use that as dependent variable.

2. Now, let's take other things into considerations that may change your finger prints, which is independent variables. For examples:

• a. Continually skin peeling, such as cancer or a skin disease.
  b. Chemical burn if you're working in labs or at chemical companies, or even because of a sickness treatment.
  c. Heat burn from some accident or accidents
  d. Scars from skin diseases, or a person may be inflicting damages on the fingers by touching or grabbing sharp objects
  e. Laceration, because someone has been working at the mills that use a lot of sanding equipment, or rough materials.
  f. Some kind of skin disease that causes damages, which may alter the shape-size of the finger tips, and skin texture that ultimately change the finger prints.

3. Then how about control? Control would be the period of time between your birth, and the time that you're exposed to something that change your finger prints. If you're using a large amount of people, compare those who don't have issues that change their finger prints, to those who have issues that result in their fingers print being altered.

Does that clear things up a bit more?[/quote]

[wildfirefox]

Im trying to think of the experiment itself don't I have tgo perform it 3 times or is that not true for a science fair project ???

Remember, a good experiment comes from getting the same or similar results from multiple experiments. If you try an experiment only once, you may or may not get the results you need. By having more than two experiments, you can compare your results side-by-side. If your results produce the same data over and over again, you can present the experiment with hard proof. If not, you can argue about the experiment results.

my constant would be the prints themselves because they don't change ? help??

Yep, your prints are a constant. It doesn't change.

[deleted-71536]

Hi Tiffany,

What an interesting project!

You have already gotten a lot of great help from the other experts. I just wanted to address your family comparison. One question you can address is whether fingerprints are more similar among people who are more closely related. In other words, would your fingerprint patterns look more like your parents' than your aunt's or uncle's? What about unrelated people? The suggestion of comparing twin fingerprints is a good one.

To get started, you could take fingerprints from yourself and some of your family, and enlarge the images. At first, it's probably best to pick one finger (for consistency). By looking at the patterns, you can identify certain characteristics that you can compare.

I know we have some forensics experts in this forum. Perhaps they can talk about how the computer programs use fingerprint pattern characteristics to match fingerprints in a database.

Good luck!
Heather

[deleted-71478]

Hi Tiffany,
The previous posts have mostly centered on how fingerprints might change during someone's life after they are born, but it sounds to me like your original question was more about how fingerprint patterns are inherited by children from their parents (passed to children through their genes). Your question basically asks which family members share the most fingerprint "traits" (the things about the fingerprints you decide to measure!). Specifically, you want to know which family member has fingerprints most similar to YOURS, but you could ask this same question for any kid in any family (meaning you could run the experiment more than once!). Is this what you're trying to ask?

So, it seems to me that you're talking about a project where you get to test how parents pass traits to their children. These traits could be anything - hair or eye color, the shape of your ears...and you've chosen one of the coolest: fingerprint patterns!

All traits depend on some mixture of your genes and your environment. This is definitely true for fingerprints: some of it depends on the genes your mom and dad passed to you, and some depends on what the environment was like in your mom's uterus while your fingerprints were actually forming (and in some cases, the ways that have already been posted about how people can try to change their fingerprints after they're born ).

Since measuring the environmental variables that affect fingerprint formation in the womb would be fairly unrealistic (and impossible for YOUR particular fingerprints - they've already formed!) and most people don't try to or succeed at changing their prints, let's talk about genes. Not all family members share the same amount of genetic information. Unless you have an identical twin, you share more genes with your parents than any other family member. They each gave you half of their genes. But what about other family members? How many of your genes do you share with them? Try looking in some textbooks or at the library for a simple explanation of how genes are inherited.

Now let's talk about independent and dependent variables. This is hard to understand in your project because we usually think about the dependent variable as the one that "changes." I see two variables in your project: 1) how related a person is to you (your mom, your dad, your brother or sister, grandparents, etc.), and 2) what kind of fingerprints they have. But neither genes nor fingerprints "change"!

The way I always think about independent vs. dependent is to set my two variables up in a sentence. Am I interested in how variable #1 differs in repsonse to variable #2, or how #2 differs in response to #1? The one that does the differing in response to the other is the dependent, the other the independent. Sounds a little confusing, but let's try it with your project.

So again, two variables in your project: 1) how related a person is to you, and 2) what kind of fingerprints they have. Which of these do you think would be the independent and which would be the dependent variable? Are you testing how fingerprints differ based on how related people are, or how relatedness differs based on fingerprint patterns? Which do you think is "changing" in response to the other? (Another way to think about it is which comes first. Are genes made in response to fingerprints, or fingerprints made in repsonse to genes?)

Once you've outlined these variables, you can move on to deciding what your hypothesis is and exactly how you're going to test it. I don't want to cover too much here because this is already a long post, but hopefully not too confusing!

I think you've got a great start on a great project! Post back when you can

Alison

[tmd523]

Hi Tiffany,
ok so what kind of materials do you think I'm going to need to perform this project "you think I sshould consentrate on one finger of both my parents my big ?? is how am I going to measure this for my independant variable thats measureing right??

What an interesting project!

You have already gotten a lot of great help from the other experts. I just wanted to address your family comparison. One question you can address is whether fingerprints are more similar among people who are more closely related. In other words, would your fingerprint patterns look more like your parents' than your aunt's or uncle's? What about unrelated people? The suggestion of comparing twin fingerprints is a good one.

To get started, you could take fingerprints from yourself and some of your family, and enlarge the images. At first, it's probably best to pick one finger (for consistency). By looking at the patterns, you can identify certain characteristics that you can compare.

I know we have some forensics experts in this forum. Perhaps they can talk about how the computer programs use fingerprint pattern characteristics to match fingerprints in a database.

Good luck!
Heather

[deleted-71536]

Hi Tiffany,

I Googled "taking fingerprints," and found this cool site that tells you how to take legible fingerprints:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/takingfps.html
That should get you started in terms of materials. (Basically, we're talking about an ink pad and paper.)

In terms of independent vs. dependent variables, Alison did a good job describing those for you. The independent variable changes on its own, and the dependent variable is what you expect to change in response to the independent variable. In this case, your independent variable is the degree of relatedness. Here is one site that explains how to calculate relatedness (although you may find others that are easier to understand):
http://taumoda.com/web/PD/library/kin.html

So your parents' degree of relatedness to you is r=1/2. You can calculate this value for aunts and uncles, cousins, and other family members. It would also be good to include unrelated people (r=0) in your experiment, to see if there are characteristics of fingerprints that are shared among all people.

Your dependent variables are the characteristics of the fingerprints that you describe or measure. That fingerprinting website I gave you actually gives you some places to start in terms of "scoring" (taking measurements from) fingerprints.

Good luck, and feel free to post back with more questions!

Cheers,
Heather

[wildfirefox]

ok so what kind of materials do you think I'm going to need to perform this project "you think I sshould consentrate on one finger of both my parents my big ?? is how am I going to measure this for my independant variable thats measureing right??

That was a bit confusing to know which was the expert's quote, and which was what you've wanted to ask. Try to place your commenting below the "/quote" statement next time.

Materials would be what ever can measure the finger prints. If you have a scanner, that would help greatly. If you don't have a scanner, a balloon will do just as good. A ruler that can measure distant/gap between the lines of the fingerprints. Then, there's the greatest material of all: Patience.

You can use 1 finger, 2, or even all 10 fingers. If you're going to stay with 1, why not use the largest finger, which is the thumb. Be consistent and either select only the right thumb, or the left thumb.

You're right about independent variables. Fingerprints remain the same (dependent variable). Independent variables are different thumb sizes, different genders (male and female), different backgrounds, different genetics, etc.. You chose.

Nam

[tmd523]

Hi Tiffany,
this is great but know I don't know if I should Score the fingerprints or put them on a balloon or do both is my teacher going to think I'm a scatter brain and all over the place I'm one of those people I need it in black or white I guess Im a bit flighty help I need this project to be organised don't I ?????
I Googled "taking fingerprints," and found this cool site that tells you how to take legible fingerprints:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/takingfps.html
That should get you started in terms of materials. (Basically, we're talking about an ink pad and paper.)

In terms of independent vs. dependent variables, Alison did a good job describing those for you. The independent variable changes on its own, and the dependent variable is what you expect to change in response to the independent variable. In this case, your independent variable is the degree of relatedness. Here is one site that explains how to calculate relatedness (although you may find others that are easier to understand):
http://taumoda.com/web/PD/library/kin.html

So your parents' degree of relatedness to you is r=1/2. You can calculate this value for aunts and uncles, cousins, and other family members. It would also be good to include unrelated people (r=0) in your experiment, to see if there are characteristics of fingerprints that are shared among all people.

Your dependent variables are the characteristics of the fingerprints that you describe or measure. That fingerprinting website I gave you actually gives you some places to start in terms of "scoring" (taking measurements from) fingerprints.

Good luck, and feel free to post back with more questions!

Cheers,
Heather

[deleted-71536]

this is great but know I don't know if I should Score the fingerprints or put them on a balloon or do both is my teacher going to think I'm a scatter brain and all over the place I'm one of those people I need it in black or white I guess Im a bit flighty help I need this project to be organised don't I ?????

Hi Tiffany,

As Nam pointed out, it would help if you put your questions after the quoted text, so everyone can tell what the Expert wrote, and what you want to know.

That said, you have to figure out what works best for you. I gave you a good site that talks about taking fingerprints, but there were several other sites that came up in Google during my search. It looks like you should do a little research to determine what will be the best method for you. Using a scanner or a balloon helps you to enlarge the fingerprints so you can score them. Alternatively, you can use ink and paper, and then use a copy machine to enlarge the prints. Which method you choose is really up to you.

One thing that might have confused you is the idea of scoring the prints. Take a look at the site I gave you. Basically, "scoring" means taking measurements. You can do this "qualitatively" (without numbers), by describing the shape of the patterns (e.g., loop, whorl, or arch); and you can also do this "quantitatively" (with numbers) by measuring the distances (e.g., the distance between the core and the delta).

In order to score the prints, you need to enlarge them for easier measurements. That's where the scanner or balloon or ink-and-paper method will come into play.

I hope this clears things up.

Cheers,
Heather

[geoffbruton]

Hi Tiffany,

Hopefully all of this information is helping you formulate your hypothesis and decide upon your experimental design!

I would just add that actually *comparing* the fine detail within fingerprints is pretty hard - it can take fingerprint examiners quite a long time to learn the skills necessary to identify or eliminate someone based upon a comparison of their fingerprints, especially if they are similar. So, please don't feel as though you *have* to do this as a part of your science fair project.

The principle of fingerprint identification is based upon the premise that the friction ridge detail on your hands (and feet!) is unique. It should be relatively easy to show evidence in support of this (based on your research and the practical aspect of your project), but without the necessary training, I wouldn't want you to feel too swamped with trying to do a lot of intercomparison.

It might be best to stick with comparing the overall patterns of fingerprints within families, just making sure to try and study as many families as you can.

As has already been suggested, you can either decide to compare a single fingerprint (e.g. right thumb) within the groups, *or* you could intercompare the patterns present on all fingers. The way in which you may want to measure this is up to you, but I would perhaps stay away from taking physical measurements from within each 'print.

For example (and I am really intrigued to check with my family!), the fingerprint patterns on my fingers (with 1 = thumb and 5 = little finger) are:

Left hand: 1, arch; 2, arch; 3, arch; 4, loop; 5, whorl.
Right hand: 1, arch; 2, arch; 3, arch; 4, arch; 5, loop.

Now, based on that information, I would now want to check to see a) what patterns are present on other blood-related family members, and b) are the positions of the patterns relevant?

The ink / pad method is a very efficient way of recording (and storing) fingerprints. An intercomparison for pattern-types can be done with the naked eye, but a magnifying glass may help. This could easily be incorporated into your display at the end of your project! Just be sure to record the mother / father / children on each of the cards you use, and to make sure that they are labeled in such a way that you don't mix them up. I would hate for you to record a lot of data and then not be able to do anything with it!

[BTW, in answer to an earlier question as to how the fingerprint databases work, here's what I understand from some of my colleagues: First of all, fingerprint identification is broken down into three levels of detail. The first level is the pattern type - arch, whorl, loop. Second level detail incorporates the "minutiae" - the ridge endings, dots, bifurcations, etc. Tertiary level detail involves the examination of the pores present within the ridge detail. The databases currently only use the first two levels of detail - poroscopy is not included.

The latent fingerprint is examined and both the type of pattern and the relative spatial orientation and positions of the fine detail (ridge endings, etc.) are entered into the database. (This is essentially done by mapping the print.) The search algorithm then filters the results based upon discernible pattern type and ranks the correlation results based upon the degree of similarity in the types and positions of the second level detail.

Ultimately, the actual comparison is performed by a qualified latent print examiner before the determination is made. Sadly, all of those movies and TV shows that have a computer screen blaring "MATCH!" are pure fiction.]

Hope this helps, and good luck!
Geoff.

[tmd523]

Hi Tiffany,

Hopefully all of this information is helping you formulate your hypothesis and decide upon your experimental design!

I would just add that actually *comparing* the fine detail within fingerprints is pretty hard - it can take fingerprint examiners quite a long time to learn the skills necessary to identify or eliminate someone based upon a comparison of their fingerprints, especially if they are similar. So, please don't feel as though you *have* to do this as a part of your science fair project.

The principle of fingerprint identification is based upon the premise that the friction ridge detail on your hands (and feet!) is unique. It should be relatively easy to show evidence in support of this (based on your research and the practical aspect of your project), but without the necessary training, I wouldn't want you to feel too swamped with trying to do a lot of intercomparison.

It might be best to stick with comparing the overall patterns of fingerprints within families, just making sure to try and study as many families as you can.

As has already been suggested, you can either decide to compare a single fingerprint (e.g. right thumb) within the groups, *or* you could intercompare the patterns present on all fingers. The way in which you may want to measure this is up to you, but I would perhaps stay away from taking physical measurements from within each 'print.

For example (and I am really intrigued to check with my family!), the fingerprint patterns on my fingers (with 1 = thumb and 5 = little finger) are:

Left hand: 1, arch; 2, arch; 3, arch; 4, loop; 5, whorl.
Right hand: 1, arch; 2, arch; 3, arch; 4, arch; 5, loop.

Now, based on that information, I would now want to check to see a) what patterns are present on other blood-related family members, and b) are the positions of the patterns relevant?

The ink / pad method is a very efficient way of recording (and storing) fingerprints. An intercomparison for pattern-types can be done with the naked eye, but a magnifying glass may help. This could easily be incorporated into your display at the end of your project! Just be sure to record the mother / father / children on each of the cards you use, and to make sure that they are labeled in such a way that you don't mix them up. I would hate for you to record a lot of data and then not be able to do anything with it!

[BTW, in answer to an earlier question as to how the fingerprint databases work, here's what I understand from some of my colleagues: First of all, fingerprint identification is broken down into three levels of detail. The first level is the pattern type - arch, whorl, loop. Second level detail incorporates the "minutiae" - the ridge endings, dots, bifurcations, etc. Tertiary level detail involves the examination of the pores present within the ridge detail. The databases currently only use the first two levels of detail - poroscopy is not included.

The latent fingerprint is examined and both the type of pattern and the relative spatial orientation and positions of the fine detail (ridge endings, etc.) are entered into the database. (This is essentially done by mapping the print.) The search algorithm then filters the results based upon discernible pattern type and ranks the correlation results based upon the degree of similarity in the types and positions of the second level detail.

Ultimately, the actual comparison is performed by a qualified latent print examiner before the determination is made. Sadly, all of those movies and TV shows that have a computer screen blaring "MATCH!" are pure fiction.]

Hope this helps, and good luck!
Geoff.

[deleted-71670]

Hi Tiffany,

I just came across something that reminded me of your project that might be helpful for background info.

It's a brief in a new magazine called Science Illustrated, it says: Italian researchers have reconstructed a fingerprint from Leonardo da Vinci's left index finger. The pattern of inches on the print suggests that da Vinci may have had Arabic ancestry--lending support to a theory that his mother was a slave from the Middle East.

There's no more info, but I thought you might want to do some Googling and use it as background info for your project.

Amber

[EllieM]

That sight was very helpful as to the experiement but I'm very confused as to what the variables should be I need to figure then out before I do the experiment but I did like the information on that site what should I do for a variable the inndependant is the question I ve asked to begin with right then the variable should be me enlarging them is that going to count as measuring I need to measure with this science project I'm just not sure what to measure any ideas how to make my board look like a million dollars ? I need to get a good grade it's not like I'm not trying this is hard but challenging which is good Thanks Susan any ideas will be greatly appreciated Thanks Tiffany

[deleted-71536]

That sight was very helpful as to the experiement but I'm very confused as to what the variables should be I need to figure then out before I do the experiment but I did like the information on that site what should I do for a variable the inndependant is the question I ve asked to begin with right then the variable should be me enlarging them is that going to count as measuring I need to measure with this science project I'm just not sure what to measure any ideas how to make my board look like a million dollars ? I need to get a good grade it's not like I'm not trying this is hard but challenging which is good Thanks Susan any ideas will be greatly appreciated Thanks Tiffany

Hi Tiffany,

To recap with respect to your independent and dependent variables, your INDEPENDENT variable is the degree to which the people in your study are related. For example, your relatedness to your parents is 1/2. To help you calculate relatedness, check out the diagrams under "Relatedness Among Diploid Animals" on this web page: http://www.sparknotes.com/biology/anima ... ion3.rhtml. Your DEPENDENT variable is what you expect to change in response to the independent variable; in your case, you have several dependent variables: the different fingerprint patterns you measured. You can pick a few of the types of fingerprint patterns on one finger (e.g., index finger), and see how different they are among your different people.

To make your board "look like a million dollars," you can have a few key photos and some diagrams. For example, you can make a relatedness diagram (similar to the ones on the web page I gave you), and include photographs of the fingerprint patterns for each person along the diagram. That will allow your audience (the judges) to see the patterns you observed, in relation to how closely related your subjects are. In terms of graphs, you can use your calculated degree of relatedness (e.g., 1/2, 1/4, etc.) as your independent variable - on the x axis - and then graph the incidence of particular patterns on the y axis (as either a scatterplot or a bar graph).

I hope this helps, but please feel free to post again with more questions!

Cheers,
Heather