FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Forensics For Instance
Quiz about Forensics For Instance

Forensics For Instance Trivia Quiz


Jane Marple knew people, Hercule Poirot used his 'little grey cells', and Sherlock Holmes used much of the scientific knowledge he had in solving crimes. In the 21st century we depend on provable evidence. Enjoy!

A multiple-choice quiz by alexis722. Estimated time: 4 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Science Trivia
  6. »
  7. Forensic Science

Author
alexis722
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
362,839
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
2880
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 194 (6/10), Guest 38 (6/10), Guest 107 (9/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Detectives often start their investigation of a crime with the question 'Cui bono?' (Who benefits?). By the 21st century, those answers have become more complex and obscure. Forensic evidence has become the decisive factor
in many cases. Where does the term 'forensic' originate?
Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Forensic science and Forensics have become interchangeable terms, forensic now interpreted to mean what? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The creator of one famous detective was responsible for many police procedures used by investigators today. Who was it? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Forensics is used in many fields other than crime. Which of these is NOT one of them? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 was a great leap forward for forensic science. Who were awarded the Nobel Prize for this? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. According to legend, Archimedes, the streaker, was once asked to judge whether a king's crown had been made from pure gold or had some silver substituted. How did he determine this? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. A Chinese book from 1248 AD tells of an investigator tasked with finding a murderer. He had figured out the implement used and narrowed his field of suspects. What did he employ as a tool in his study of the case? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. During the centuries that followed many discoveries were made and many theories recognized. By 1773 a Swedish chemist could detect a substance in corpses and by 1806 a German scientist could find the same in the walls of the deceased's stomach. What did they find? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. In ballistics, some theories have been used that did not hold up years later. One discarded theory was used in the initial investigation and findings of which event? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Trace evidence analysis is used on which items? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Mar 22 2024 : Guest 194: 6/10
Mar 15 2024 : Guest 38: 6/10
Mar 13 2024 : Guest 107: 9/10
Mar 10 2024 : shanfloyd81: 7/10
Mar 09 2024 : Guest 75: 2/10
Mar 03 2024 : Guest 173: 10/10
Mar 03 2024 : Guest 84: 5/10
Feb 29 2024 : Possum1: 7/10
Feb 27 2024 : Guest 204: 6/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Detectives often start their investigation of a crime with the question 'Cui bono?' (Who benefits?). By the 21st century, those answers have become more complex and obscure. Forensic evidence has become the decisive factor in many cases. Where does the term 'forensic' originate?

Answer: Latin

Forensis, in Latin, means 'from the forum'. In ancient Rome, a criminal charge was presented to a group of individuals in the forum. The accuser and the accused each gave speeches, and the better arguer was generally determined the winner. He said/she said, but who said it best? Many guilty, but eloquent, people went free, while the innocent tongue-tied or shy speaker might easily be convicted.

But we live in a much more complex world, one that is both smaller (via instant communication) and larger (we number in the billions), so concrete evidence is necessary.

In criminal courts, the standard is belief 'beyond a reasonable doubt', while in civil cases it is 'preponderance of the evidence'.
2. Forensic science and Forensics have become interchangeable terms, forensic now interpreted to mean what?

Answer: Related to law

The modern interpretation has come to mean related to court{s} or law. As forensics is based on science, and has successfully revealed the facts in many cases, it has come to be regarded by many as positive proof. It is not, however, infallible, just as those who practice it are not.

The simple accepted method of identification by fingerprints has been called into question. The original theory was that there are no two identical fingerprints (or footprints or other markings), but there is no absolute proof of this. Just as with no two identical snowflakes, how high a number determines the breakdown of this concept? How many infinite number of snowflakes have fallen on our planet, and how can we be sure there are no two alike? We just haven't found them.
3. The creator of one famous detective was responsible for many police procedures used by investigators today. Who was it?

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle had Holmes study tobacco ash, fingerprints and other clues that would be considered forensic evidence many years later, and are still in use. Holmes' forte was his vast knowledge of many subjects and his powers of observation. His logical statement, 'when you have eliminated the impossible, what is left is the answer' does not hold water any longer. Things happen and crimes are committed now for illogical reasons that were not considered applicable in his time. Serial killers, said to be 'out there' in the hundreds at any given time, are profiled and may even be known, but many are never caught.
4. Forensics is used in many fields other than crime. Which of these is NOT one of them?

Answer: Astrology

Although forensics may have some indirect relation to psychology (study of the mind and behavior), the other sciences benefit directly from forensics. Carbon dating, for example, is regarded as accurate, as the half-life of the element has been proved.
5. The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 was a great leap forward for forensic science. Who were awarded the Nobel Prize for this?

Answer: Watson and Crick

The elegant structure of the double helix made an exceptional identification tool with positive conclusions possible as well as the tracing of ancestry and lineages. Now humans can compare their DNA to the species they believed to be closest to themselves, and we learn that what we considered simple organisms have very complex DNA structure.

The double helix structure was discovered by Watson and Crick, while DNA itself was first discovered by Miescher in the nineteenth century.
6. According to legend, Archimedes, the streaker, was once asked to judge whether a king's crown had been made from pure gold or had some silver substituted. How did he determine this?

Answer: With his 'displacement theory'

He had to figure it out without damaging the crown: he suspended a block of gold the same mass as the crown was allegedly made of, from one side of a hanger, and suspended the crown from the other side at exactly the same distance from middle to end. They appeared to be equal in the air, but when dipped in water the gold block displaced more water than the crown, proving that the crown was not made from the pure gold provided by the king.

The fate of the goldsmith is not known, but can be surmised by using the little grey cells.
7. A Chinese book from 1248 AD tells of an investigator tasked with finding a murderer. He had figured out the implement used and narrowed his field of suspects. What did he employ as a tool in his study of the case?

Answer: Flies

The investigator had compared the fatal wounds to the results of using various implements on a dead animal, to determine that a sickle had been used in the crime. He had all the men who worked with sickles brought together and had them lay their tools down. Little by little, flies were attracted to one particular sickle.

The murderer realised they had smelled blood and confessed to the crime. The book was written by Song Ci (1186 - 1249) and was named "Washing Away of Wrongs". In the same book he tells of ways to determine whether a person had drowned or been strangled and other helpful info. There were many ancient methods used to determine guilt or innocence, based on the ideas and values of the times, but you wouldn't want to risk your life on most of them.

It's difficult to prove a negative, like how can we be sure you're not a witch?
8. During the centuries that followed many discoveries were made and many theories recognized. By 1773 a Swedish chemist could detect a substance in corpses and by 1806 a German scientist could find the same in the walls of the deceased's stomach. What did they find?

Answer: Arsenic

Scheele, the Swede, could detect arsenic in large doses in a cadaver, and Ross, the German, found it in smaller doses in the lining of the stomach. By 1836 James Marsh, an English chemist, confirmed that it was the poison used for murder in a trial. Later trials convicted other killers by the use of ballistics and fabric evidence supporting it. By 1909, Archibald Reiss founded the 'Institut de police scientifique' in Lausanne, Switzerland, the first of its kind in the world.

It still offers a complete comprehensive course in forensic sciences.
9. In ballistics, some theories have been used that did not hold up years later. One discarded theory was used in the initial investigation and findings of which event?

Answer: JFK assassination

The bullet-lead analysis used in the 1960s by the FBI and others proved to be inconclusive and was discarded; the test was no longer used after 2005.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were gunned down in plain sight by police in 1934.

Al Capone died of syphilis. The killer of Archduke Ferdinand and his pregnant wife, Sofia, was caught at the event in 1914. Gavrilo Princip was the head of the assassins, and after a failed attempt by another of the gang with a bomb, he managed to shoot the pair in their car, where they died.
10. Trace evidence analysis is used on which items?

Answer: Paint, fiber, glass, hair

There are many subcategories and each has its own specialists. Forensic specialties include computational forensics, digital forensics (recovering evidence from digital and electronic media), forensic accounting, anthropology, aerial photography, geophysics, entomology, chemistry, psychology and psychiatry, odontology, optometry and a slew of others. Blood spatter analysis is another fairly new field, and the more we know the more there is to find out. Even DNA, which was the 'golden boy' of the science, has come under scrutiny, as it has been found to be fabricated in some cases.
Source: Author alexis722

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor CellarDoor before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us