Introduction

When a bullet is fired, it becomes a projectile and the only force acting on it is gravity. When you throw a football, the football is also a projectile. The laws governing the motion of these objects is the same, even though the bullet is moving more than ten times faster than the football.

A father and son playing catch with a football.

In this unit, we will see how investigators use the physics surrounding projectiles to determine the position of the shooter and recreate the crime scene.

Lesson Objectives

Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to...

  • Describe the role of bullet holes and gunpowder residue in recreating a crime scene.
  • Determine the position of the shooter based on bullet trajectory and gunpowder residue.

Essential Questions

  • What additional information can entry and exit wounds give us about the path of the bullet?
  • How can crime scene reconstruction assist forensic scientists in solving crimes?

Enduring Understandings

  • Crime scene evidence can be compared to previously established models or recreations to enhance to one's understanding of the crime scene (i.e. trajectories, decay processes, bone length/height).
  • Forensics requires a team of practitioners representing all areas of science.

The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Forensic Science and Crime Scene Investigation standards: 29, 30.