Skip to main content

Mathematics in Crime

Mathematics in crime 


Have you ever heard about hit and run case that remained unsolved for a year or longer? That may be because of the fact detective did not use mathematics to solve the case. Wait! What? Mathematics to solve a crime? Yes, mathematics could help a lot in this scenario. Let me elaborate you.

Imagine a person hit by a bike and the bike ran away and you are given this hit and run case to be solved. But the only clue you have is the track of the bike on the road spot. What will you do? First, you should think about which direction was the bike coming from during the accident? Suppose these are the tracks of the bike.   



 Can you find the direction of the bike?

Can you tell the size of the bike?

Yes we can find both.

But the problem you may face is you encounter two tracks overlapped with each other. To know the direction of the bike first you have to find which of the two sets of the tire is the back tire? So here you should use mathematics.

1.   If you look at the track the front tire is always pointing in the direction of the bike but the back tire is pointing towards the front tire. If you draw a tangent on any back tire it will always intersect at some point on the front tire.

  

So if you get any point on any track where tangent at that point is not intersecting the other track, then it is the track of the front tire.

2.   Here the dotted path is the front tire.



 

But we have not found where the bike came from? To find that we should think much deeper. We should know that the tangent from the point on the back tire must always intersect the front tire track and the length of the tangent always must be equal to the size of bike.





 

3.   Suppose we found that the tangent at our back tire track always intersect front track and gives the length of the tangent always constant only if tangent is drawn right. But while producing tangent towards left it is intersecting the front tire with the variable length which is not equal to the size of the bike.

4.   And in the process, we already found the size of the bike.


-SACHIN SAUD






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Katherine G. Johnson : Mother, Mathematician, and a Pioneer for Space Exploration

Many people spend decades writing about an important figure, who has impacted not the life of a single person but an entire race. Writing about this important of a person is really tiresome and it takes sometime to process the fact that one has been endowed with this amazing opportunity.      For me, It all began with a simple google search of Katherine Johnson's name.   Portrait of Katherine Johnson via. NASA   I like to view this as a simple google search that changed the way I perceived the world of Mathematics. An African-American lady who was rejected the first time she applied to NACA ( National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which was later changed to NASA ) changed the way I view Mathematics.      Katherine Johnson was simply put an extraordinaire. She was an amazing Mathematician who helped NASA lay it's foundations for Space Travel and also is an inspiration to many and one of the very few awardee of Presidential Medal of Freedom ( ...
1 comment
Read more

Why is any number over 0 undefined or what we say infinity?

  Why is any number over 0 undefined or what we say infinity? We are used to dividing a certain number by another or by the same number since we started learning mathematics. That’s not a big deal. But here’s one big deal that we are always warned about i.e., to divide any number by zero (0).   But Why? Because you get infinity when you do so. But how and why we tend to get so when we divide any number by zero? Let’s have a look at it to better understand!!! ▪          Firstly, what’s multiplication? Nothing but repeated addition. Example: 2×3=6 which means we need to add 2 thrice to get 6.              ▪          And secondly , what’s division? Nothing but repeated subtraction unless we get zero. Example: 15/5=3 which means subtracting 5 thrice from 15 to get 0.   i.e, 15-5-5-5=0 But let’s check in case of 1/0. Accordin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mathematics in Criminal Justice

            “There’s a dead body inside the hotel room!!! I’m really scared… Please arrive on time.”   The police did arrive, but not quite on time. By the time they arrived, people had already gathered outside Hotel Chandani with a stressed look on their faces. The police entered the room and saw a man stained with blood on his head, and on his back — they immediately declared him dead seeing no signs of life whatsoever. “Definitely not a gunshot” - a police officer insisted as if he was a hundred percent sure. Immediately after, another police officer reached the dead body and measured his temperature while the other officers looked around if the murderer left some clue. The police stayed in the hotel for another hour and a half: some closely inspecting the crime scene, some talking to the owner (who found it difficult to even utter a word), and some asking the gathered mass to return to their places. Before leaving the hotel, the same officer who to...
6 comments
Read more