Loop, Whorl, or Arch?
This is the most common fingerprint pattern, found in roughly 60% to 70% of the population.
What is a Loop?
These are the tiny, unique ridge characteristics and details that fingerprint experts look for to match a print to a suspect.
What are minutiae points?
These are the invisible or hidden fingerprints left behind on a surface by the oils and sweat on your skin.
What are latent prints?
The Henry System assigns numerical point values to your fingers, but it only counts this specific pattern type.
What are Whorls?
This scientist and cousin of Charles Darwin was one of the first to calculate the mathematical uniqueness of prints, estimating the odds of a duplicate at 1 in 64 billion.
Who is Sir Francis Galton?
This is the rarest fingerprint pattern, making up only about 5% of all prints.
What is an Arch?
This type of minutiae happens when a single ridge splits into two paths like a fork in the road.
What is a bifurcation?
This is the classic method used to reveal latent prints on hard, non-porous surfaces like glass or metal.
What is dusting with fingerprint powder?
If a person has all loops and arches on their hands and zero whorls, this is their final Henry System primary ratio score
What is 1/1?
This large, computerized database is used by modern law enforcement agencies across the country to share and search for matching fingerprints.
What is AFIS? / Automated Fingerprint Identification System
To be classified as this specific pattern, the print must have at least two deltas.
What is a Whorl?
This is the exact point where a ridge line simply stops and goes no further.
What is a ridge ending?
After dusting and revealing a print, investigators use this common item to carefully lift the print and transfer it to a contrast card
What is clear tape?
In the Henry System, these two fingers belong to "Pair 1" and are worth the highest value of 16 points if they have a whorl.
What are the Right Thumb and Right Index finger?
True or False: A person can permanently destroy or erase their fingerprints by burning or scraping their fingertips.
What is False? The ridges go deep into the dermal layer of skin and will grow back, often with permanent scars that make the print even easier to identify.
This sub-category of loop flows inward toward your thumb, named after the bone on that side of your forearm.
What is a Radial Loop?
To legally prove a match in court, fingerprint examiners generally look for this many matching minutiae points between a suspect and a crime scene print.
What is 12 to 16 points?
This is the name of the chemical or superglue fuming process used to develop prints on uneven objects.
What is Cyanoacrylate fuming?
If a whorl is found on your Left Thumb, it falls into Pair 3. This is the point value assigned to it.
What is 4 points?
This is the type of print left behind when a finger is pressed into a soft material like wet paint, wax, or soap.
What is a plastic print?
This sub-category of arch doesn't just flow smoothly across; it rises to a sharp, distinct peak in the center.
What is a Tented Arch?
True or False: Identical twins share the exact same minutiae points because they share the same DNA.
What is False? Fingerprints are formed by random pressure in the womb, so even twins have unique prints.
This chemical reagent turns purple when it reacts with the amino acids in sweat, making it perfect for finding latent prints left on paper.
What is Ninhydrin?
This is the exact formula used to calculate the primary ratio in the Henry System.
What is [Sum of Even Finger Whorl Values + 1] divided by [Sum of Odd Finger Whorl Values + 1]?
This is the term for a fingerprint left at a crime scene that is clearly visible to the naked eye because the finger was covered in a substance like blood, ink, or dirt.
What is a patent print?