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Re: gruesome question



I'd guess the answer is 'yes', but a visit to the local butcher shop
might well provide the means to answer the question empirically :> Or
maybe the local hospital, although you'd run into some biohazard issues
even with expired human blood samples.
Suggest that they and/or their forensic examiner under take the
experiment! Watch the Medical Detectives, etc. on Discovery and the
Learning Channel :> Great practical science!

John N. Cooper, Chemistry
Bucknell University
Lewisburg PA 17837-2005
jcooper@bucknell.edu
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/jcooper
VOX 570-577-3673 FAX 570-577-1739

On Thu, 24 May 2001, kyle forinash wrote:

Sometimes you get asked weird questions, here is one I hope someone
can give me some insight to (I suppose I could get called to testify
on this).

The county prosecutor's office called me with the following question.
A car is sitting on an asphalt roadway. Blood is found around and
UNDER a tire. But they don't think the car drove over the blood (no
tracks). Is normal asphalt porous enough for blood to seep under the
tire without moving the tire?

I'm thinking probably yes (asphalt starts out as separate particles
so capillary action between the grains could do the job), but is
there anyway to establish that for sure? How porous is asphalt?