Chapter 17: Soil and Glass

The most important tool in the forensic soil scientists toolbox.

A technique in optical mineralogy that helps determine the relative refractive index of two materials.

Tend to be light tan or white owing to lack of moisture.

Collective organic fraction of soil.

________; where glass can be individualized to a particular object.

Earth material, either natural or man-made (concrete, gravel, other building materials), that is transferred from a crime scene to a person or object, or vice versa.

Will form on the side of the glass opposite to the side of the impact.

When a(n) ________, such as a bullet, passes through a piece of glass, a crater will form in the glass that is larger on the exit side of the glass.

An amorphous solid; a hard, brittle material that is usually transparent, but which lacks the ordered arrangement of atoms.

Used to make windows and windshields and can also be shaped to form light bulbs, headlights, and other materials.

Fractures forming in an approximately circular pattern around the point of impact.

Used in cookware, thermometers, and automobile headlights because it can take fast, extreme changes in temperature without cracking or shattering.

The key to understanding the nature of the samples under examination.

________ contains both organic and inorganic materials.

made up largely of oxides of silicons that have been doped with other materials to give it its familiar properties

made by pouring the molten glass from a furnace into a chamber that contains a bed of molten tin

made when calcium oxide and sodium carbonate are added

used in cookware, thermometers, and automobile headlights because it can take fast, extreme changes in temperature without cracking or shattering

a process whereby the glass is heated and cooled rapidly, producing deliberate stress in the surface

used to make windows and windshields and can also be shaped to form light bulbs, headlights, and other materials

used to make bottles and drinking glasses

used in most forensic science laboratories to determine the refractive index of small glass particles

will form on the side of the glass opposite to the side of the impact