Scioly.org

I was shocked that I was the best MV team. Honestly, I felt soo stupid while taking my test, because I only ID'd 2-3 powders. I'm pretty positive that I got all the plastics right, but those questions about blood and hair just threw me for a loop. So yeah, the one thing to take from this is study, study, study.

Kokonilly wrote:

haverstall wrote:Congrats on the 1st place, Salcedam. I got completely owned by that test. Need to practice more and ID faster. I do admit some of those questions I wasn't expecting, especially the blood ones.

Agreed; congrats, salcedam! It also didn't help that the room was absolutely boiling. I was shocked at my medal.

Thanks, guys! Freakin' goggles fogging up all the time...ugh...yeah, the blood questions were a bit unexpected. I didn't spend much time on them since I let my partner do that. I was mostly the ID guy with powders and fibers and then fingerprints, mass spec, and analysis stuff. The thing I like about that test was the 8 powders though because that really let us know how much time is needed. That was definitely a good test in my opinion.

Where can I find a good flowchart for the qualitative analysis?

Well, the flowchart really varies, depending on which test(s) you like to use. Personally, I like to start with the flame test and go from there...the Forensics Wiki has results from most (all?) the allowable tests, but I'd highly recommend doing your own testing to find what works for you.

However, if you really want a premade flowchart, NCSO does have one on their website (http://www.sciencenc.com/event-help/forensics.php), but it's got a couple different substances/reagents.

For the NaCl solutions used for polymer identification, are they by mass or by molarity?

personasaurus rex wrote:For the NaCl solutions used for polymer identification, are they by mass or by molarity?

I believe it's by mass. So a 10% NaCl solution has 10g NaCl per 100g water.

so how would you make a saturated NaCl solution?

personasaurus rex wrote:so how would you make a saturated NaCl solution?

stick a squid in a normal NaCl solution

personasaurus rex wrote:so how would you make a saturated NaCl solution?

Keep adding salt to the water. When it won't dissolve any more, that means you've reached the saturation point (about 36 g salt/100 mL water).

AlphaTauri- Thanks! That should work great.