That is a picture of a bullet passing through sticks of colored chalk. It is something that Jim Bales, a regular commentator here, does in Real Life™. It confirms something I learned in my course on crime scene investigation as well as being a really neat photograph.
Oh, Iselle has gone post-tropical and Julio is still on track to pass 100+ miles to the Northeast of the Hawaiian Islands.
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4 comments
OK, Bryan, inquiring minds want to know! What did you learn on crime scene investigations that this photo confirmed?
(And, yeah, it was a fun photo to take, as long as, for a few minutes after shooting the chalk, one didn’t inhale 😉 )
Best
Jim
The dispersion pattern of fluids and powders that track with the shockwave of the bullet. The location of the victim doesn’t always tell you where people were when shots were fired, which tells you where to look for bullets that pass through, but blood spatters will. Notice the cone spreading out from the initial impact point. Glass shatters with a similar cone pattern which is useful to know if you suspect that someone was faking a break-in by breaking a window and then dumping the fragments inside to make it look like the window was broken by someone outside.
yes indeed, inquiring minds do want to know! my thanks to jim bales for asking.
Welcome back, Hipparchia. Haven’t heard from you in a while.
Most of the crime scene stuff on TV is science fiction, and nothing happens in minutes. Toxicology still takes weeks, even in LA and NYC. The biggest actual boosts to investigation are better cameras and multiple light sources available with digital photography to enhance the black and white film photography.
If you actually get to investigate a relatively uncompromised crime scene, you are well on your way to providing all of the evidence to obtain a conviction once you have identified the suspect(s).