Witness Experiment and Drug Analysis

Witnesses ave a hard job to fulfill. As a witness to a crime, they are obligated to give testimony against the perpetrator. This requires a keen memory of detail including memorization of the criminal's face. In this activity, we cut faces out of magazines that were approximately the same size. Then we cut the faces into smaller pieces and allowed everyone at the table ten seconds to visualize each face. After the time had elapsed, we mixed the pieces of paper together in one pile and every one had to attempt to reconstuct the face someone else had showed them. By participating in this activity, I learned how crucialy important it is the pay attention to detail of everything falls apart.

Face constructed after pieces were mixed in with
other, similar- looking facial featues

Face constructed after pieces were mixed in with
other, similar- looking facial featues

Drug Analysis

Cocaine

Cocaine’s Chemical Name: benzoylmethylecgonine

Cocaine’s Chemical Formula:  C17H21NO4

Cocaine’s Average pH: 5

Tests for Cocaine:

-          Color changing indicator (blue=positive)

-          Microscopic analysis

-          Chemical testing (Test for chemical properties of cocaine)

LSD 

LSD’s Chemical Name: Lysergic acid diethylamide

LSD’s Chemical Formula: C20H25N3O

LSD’s Average pH: 3

Tests for LSD:

-          Color changing indicator (yellow= positive)

-          Microscopic analysis

-          Chemical testing (Test for chemical properties of LSD)

 

Drugs can be an essential component of a crime scene and can help identify a motive for a murder or initial cause of death. As a laboratory experience, we analyzed artificial drug substances that we tested for Cocaine and LSD. We used various color- changing indicators to reveal the chemical make- up of each test substance. We also determined the pH of each substance by creatinf it in solution.



Materials used in this experiment





Station one set up





Station two set up

 

Station four set up







 






Station six set up



Negative LSD test



Positive LSD test



Positive Cocaine test







Station five set up