Aha Trivia Stuff Everyone Should Know

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Stuff Every Fingerprint Scout Should Know: free practice in 30-second cards

Stuff Every Fingerprint Scout Should Know

Practice facts for the Fingerprinting merit badge. Not an official Scouting America credential.

Start Stuff Every Fingerprint Scout Should Know ⚡ Today's sprint 🎙️ Voice mode

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Free to start, no sign-up. 97 cards so far. One Knowledge Score and day streak across all your courses.

Questions people ask

Is this practice test free?

Yes. The first 50 cards are free for everyone with no sign-up, each with the answer, why it is right and its sources. Aha Trivia members get all 97 cards and timed practice exams.

How many practice questions are there?

97 practice questions so far. Each one is a 3-choice card that takes about 30 seconds, and the course grows as new cards pass our source checks.

Where do the answers come from?

Every card lists the sources it was checked against, and each answer explains why it is right. If you think an answer is wrong, tap "Challenge this answer" in the game and it gets reviewed.

Can I study in the car?

Yes. Voice mode reads the questions out loud and you answer by voice.

Try 3 cards

  1. What is a fingerprint an impression of?
    Show the answer

    Friction ridges on a finger. Fingerprints are impressions left by the friction ridges of a human finger.

  2. What is the scientific study of fingerprints called?
    Show the answer

    Dermatoglyphics. The scientific study of fingerprints is called dermatoglyphics or dactylography.

  3. Which three basic fingerprint patterns are named in the source?
    Show the answer

    Arch, loop, and whorl. The three basic patterns of fingerprint ridges are the arch, loop, and whorl.

All 97 practice questions

The first 50 are free, with the answer, why it's right and the official sources. The other 47 (🔒) open with a membership (every test). Or play them as a game and track what you've learned.

Show all 97 questions
  1. What is a fingerprint an impression of?
  2. What is the scientific study of fingerprints called?
  3. Which three basic fingerprint patterns are named in the source?
  4. What do arch pattern ridges do?
  5. What do loop pattern ridges do?
  6. What do whorl pattern ridges do?
  7. What is a ridge ending called?
  8. What is a bifurcation in a fingerprint?
  9. What is a delta in fingerprint features?
  10. What is the core of a fingerprint?
  11. What is a latent print?
  12. What is a patent print?
  13. What is a plastic print?
  14. What is live scan?
  15. What is an exemplar print?
  16. What does AFIS stand for?
  17. What does biometric identification use?
  18. Where are friction ridges found on the body?
  19. When do friction ridge features form before birth?
  20. Do identical twins have identical fingerprints?
  21. What is adermatoglyphia?
  22. What can cause temporary loss of fingerprints?
  23. Why can senior citizens' prints be hard to capture?
  24. What is a fingerprint sensor?
  25. What do optical fingerprint scanners use?
  26. What do ultrasound fingerprint scanners use?
  27. What do thermal fingerprint scanners sense?
  28. What is a biometric template?
  29. What is a ridge bifurcation used for in automated matching?
  30. What is a ridge ending in minutiae?
  31. What is a lake or ridge enclosure?
  32. What is a spur in fingerprint features?
  33. What is a bridge or crossover?
  34. What is an island or dot in a fingerprint?
  35. What is the Henry Classification System used for?
  36. What is dactyloscopy?
  37. What is a latent print often made visible with?
  38. What is ninhydrin used for?
  39. What is a fingerprint examiner required to undergo?
  40. What is a friction ridge?
  41. What do friction ridges help amplify?
  42. What is the first step in capturing a fingerprint with a sensor?
  43. What is a solid-state fingerprint reader one major family of?
  44. What does a capacitive scanner use to form an image?
  45. What is a fingerprint card typically used to record?
  46. What can deliberate impressions of fingerprints be obtained with?
  47. What do some less sophisticated fingerprint sensors risk?
  48. What is a friction ridge sometimes called?
  49. What does AFIS mainly help law enforcement do?
  50. What is the main purpose of a civil AFIS?
  51. How does a verification system differ from an identification system? 🔒
  52. What does the US IAFIS database contain? 🔒
  53. What can a latent-to-tenprint search often return? 🔒
  54. Who usually confirms candidates suggested by a forensic AFIS? 🔒
  55. What is a lights-out or auto-confirm algorithm? 🔒
  56. Why did the Brandon Mayfield case change FBI views? 🔒
  57. What is one criticism of fingerprint matching decisions? 🔒
  58. What does the Prüm treaty allow European police agencies to do? 🔒
  59. What is the dermis? 🔒
  60. What are dermal papillae? 🔒
  61. What do dermal papillae form at the skin surface on hands and feet? 🔒
  62. What does the papillary dermis do for the epidermis? 🔒
  63. What happens to dermal papillae with age? 🔒
  64. What is friction ridge skin called by anatomists? 🔒
  65. What does friction ridge skin lack? 🔒
  66. What is the reticular dermis mostly made of? 🔒
  67. What do collagen fibers give the dermis? 🔒
  68. What do elastic fibers give the dermis? 🔒
  69. What are Langer's lines? 🔒
  70. What do Meissner's corpuscles help with? 🔒
  71. What does the dermis contain that provides the sense of heat? 🔒
  72. What are the three major cell types in the dermis? 🔒
  73. What does the dermis cushion the body from? 🔒
  74. What is the papillary dermis named for? 🔒
  75. What is the papillary dermis composed of? 🔒
  76. What strengthens the junction between dermis and epidermis? 🔒
  77. What are the two layers of the dermis? 🔒
  78. What does the reticular dermis contain besides collagen? 🔒
  79. What is the main function of the dermis? 🔒
  80. What can chocolate or paint on fingers leave? 🔒
  81. What is the first known murder case solved using fingerprint analysis? 🔒
  82. Who created the first method of recording fingerprints on file? 🔒
  83. What did Henry Faulds propose for recording fingerprints? 🔒
  84. What did Francis Galton calculate about false positives? 🔒
  85. What did Edmond Locard establish in France in 1910? 🔒
  86. What can gloves themselves leave at a crime scene? 🔒
  87. What is adermatoglyphia caused by? 🔒
  88. What did John Dillinger do to his fingertips? 🔒
  89. What did ancient Chinese officials use fingerprints for? 🔒
  90. What did Rashid-al-Din Hamadani say about fingers? 🔒
  91. What did Marcello Malpighi identify in fingerprints in 1686? 🔒
  92. What did Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer conclude in 1788? 🔒
  93. How much of a fresh fingerprint's weight can water make up? 🔒
  94. Why do examiners dust a nonporous surface like glass? 🔒
  95. In a loop pattern, which side does the ridge tail point toward for an ulnar loop? 🔒
  96. What does a fingerprint examiner compare to decide if two prints match? 🔒
  97. What does a fingerprint sensor measure to build an image? 🔒