Activities

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- Lesson Files
- Teacher Notes Appendix A PDF
- Teacher Notes Appendix B PDF
- Teacher Notes PDF
Alignment
- Standards Alignment
- Textbook Alignment
Subject Area
- Maths: Statistics: Data Analysis
- Science: Forensics: Data Analysis
Author

Texas Instruments
Level

9-12
Device
- TI-83 Plus Family
- TI-84 Plus
- TI-84 Plus Silver Edition
- TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition
- TI-84 Plus CE
Software

TI Connect™
TI Connect™ CE
Applications
- EasyData® for TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus
- Vernier EasyData™ for TI-84 Plus CE
Accessories

Sensor - Colorimeter
TI Connectivity Cable
Unit-to-Unit link cables
Other Materials
- Vernier EasyLink
- Colorimeter
- 6 cuvettes
- Colored wax pencil
- 5 dropper bottles, with 10 mL samples of 5 different diluted black inks
- 1 dropper bottle with 10 mL of diluted unknown black ink
- Deionized or distilled water
- Lint-free tissues
- Goggles
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Forensics Case 5 - The Ink Is Still Wet: Using colorimetry to identify an unknown ink

Activity Overview

In this activity, students identify the ink of a ransom note to match suspects. They identify an unknown ink by its light absorbance characteristics. The experiment set up used is to measure a solutions absorbance of different colors (wavelengths) of light.

Key Steps

Using the four settings on the colorimeter (Red, Green, Blue, Violet), solutions of different brands of ink pens are tested.
With the data compiled, each ink has a distinct profile making it possible to see if the ink sample from the suspect matches the specialized ink contained in the ransom note.

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Lesson Files

Alignment

Subject Area

Author

Level

Device

Software

Applications

EasyData® for TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus

Vernier EasyData™ for TI-84 Plus CE

Accessories

Other Materials

Report an Issue

Forensics Case 5 - The Ink Is Still Wet: Using colorimetry to identify an unknown ink

Activity Overview

Key Steps

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