Welcome to BYJUS Tell Me Why where we explain to you the why behind anything and everything thats been on your mind! So go ahead and ask us a question that starts with Tell Me Why. Well pick the most intriguing questions and feature them along with an illustrated answer on The Learning Tree Blog.
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Today we are answering a very interesting question asked by class 5 student, Shrishty from Varanasi. She wants to know,
Why do we have unique fingerprints?
Before we tell you the answer, lets start by talking about how fingerprints are formed.
Fingerprints are impressions left behind when your fingers touch a glass, or when you put ink on your fingers and press them on a piece of paper.
Fingerprints are the tiny ridges and patterns on every finger that you have. Look closely at the lines on your fingertips. These are called friction ridges. Its hard to see, but they actually stick up above the rest of the skin.
These friction ridges are present on your fingertips, palm, toes, and soles! They are also known as dermal ridges. Fingerprints are completely unique to every individual person.
How are fingerprints formed?
Theres no single cause for your unique fingerprint design. Instead, its the result of both your genes and your environment. This is called multifactorial inheritance.
Friction ridges grow in different designs, like arches or whorls. If your parents fingers have a certain pattern, you might be likely to have it too. Thats because genes give the basic design, and you get your genes from your parents.
Genes are like instructions written inside the body. They give directions to things like eye color, nose shape, and more.
A persons fingerprints are formed when they are a tiny fetus developing in their mothers womb. The faint lines you see on your fingers and toes were completely formed by the time you were 6 months old to 3 months before you were born!
Scientists agree that fingerprints begin to develop around the 10th week of pregnancy, but no one is certain of the precise process that creates them.
The most widely accepted theory states that there are two important factors that create unique fingerprints:
– Genes of the parents
– The friction between the dermis (the inside skin layer) and epidermis (the outside skin layer) creates pressure causing the skin to buckle and fold. This results in creating that unique pattern we call fingerprints.
Everyones skin grows in a slightly different environment inside the womb. Thats why its so unlikely anyone has the same fingerprints as you.
Can you alter fingerprints?
Repeated activity, such as bricklaying, can wear down fingerprints, rendering them inadequate for personal identification. Likewise, there have been some horrifying instances where criminals have purposely burnt off their fingerprints to prevent identification. However, in most cases, due to the imprinting of fingerprints in deeper skin layers, the fingerprints will eventually grow back.
Can identical twins have the same fingerprints?
It can be hard to tell twins apart, but can we look at their fingertips and reveal whos who?
Fingerprint pattern formation consists of two components: developmental and genetic. The fingerprint pattern not only depends on genetic factors but also on unique physical conditions.
So even if identical twins are genetically similar, the pressure faced by the fetus in the womb can affect their fingerprints. Even the difference in the length of the umbilical cord can make changes to the fingerprints!
So yes, identical twins could fool everybody with their looks, but they aint fooling the fingerprint test!
Is there no chance that someone can share our fingerprints?
Innumerable environmental factors are thought to influence the formation of fingerprints. Some of these factors include blood pressure, oxygen levels in the blood, nutrition of the mother, hormone levels, the exact position of the fetus in the womb at particular times, the exact composition and density of the fluid thats swirling around the fingers of the fetus as they touch surrounding structures, the pressure with which they touch their surroundings and much more!
These countless variables decide how each individual ridge is formed.
The level of activity of a fetus and the general chaos of the conditions of the womb prevent fingerprints from developing exactly the same way in any two fetuses.
The entire development process is so chaotic that, over the entire course of human history, there is virtually no chance that the exact same pattern formed twice.
What this means is that fingerprints are different on every finger of your hand, and even the fingerprints on the same fingers of opposite hands are different!
Are there any applications of this unique quality?
One major use of fingerprinting is related to criminal investigations. Fingerprints can often be used to identify the perpetrator of a crime.
Fingerprints are used to identify unknown victims, witnesses or suspects, and most importantly, as links between a suspect and a crime.
Even when there is no suspect in a crime, fingerprints can help develop leads and provide clues about the criminals size, gender, and occupation.
A word of caution
Something that needs to be remembered is that several factors can contribute to inaccurate identification. First of all, no two fingerprints or impressions are precisely alike at all times.
Second, fingerprints collected at crime scenes are often imperfect and are frequently either partial, smudged or dirty prints.
In other words, even fingerprint examination is not a foolproof way to identify a person, particularly if that person is actively trying to fool you!
Well be back next month with a brand new Tell Me Why questions!
Until then have a good time, and keep the curiosity alive!
To ask your own Tell Me Why question, fill the form below:
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As a true introvert, Raza Mehdi shudders at the thought of having to expose very much of himself willingly and with malice-aforethought. Writing online since 2008; fiction, poetry, and articles on science, politics, humour and history. When he is not working, he is either trekking in mountains or sleeping. In his own words, the most apt description of him would be: Biryani on social media, daal chawal in person.
Arya C is a 4th grader who talks about her transition from the US to India and how BYJU`S has helped her at that. She also loves how BYJU`S has made learning a lot more fun.
Meet Sourabh who has a ton to say about his BYJU`S learning experience. His love for quizzes, games and other fun activities are paying off!
V Shriya is a class eight student who has been using BYJU?S for a year now. She shares her experiences with using the app and how it has helped her in improving her academic performance.
Aanvi from class 9 has been with BYJU`S for just 6 months and hear what she has to say about her learning experience with the app.
Comments
Sunandana Kar
April 20, 2021
The reality is we can’t detect everyone’s fingerprint on this planet. So far the fingerprints are unique, but we can face some issues with it in the future.
BTW the article is great! ????
Deva Nanda A
April 20, 2021
This is really amazing!
Thank you byjus for sharing this information.
Angela isyas
April 20, 2021
Thanks for the information
Anandhukrishnan.A S
April 20, 2021
Use full??
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April 20, 2021
My name is Sarthak. I am from nanded, Maharashtra. My question is
Is there life after death?
And how was the feeling when someone is died as his side.
Parth Sitaphale
April 20, 2021
Why different people have different
Foot and their different nail
Tina Bose
April 20, 2021
This is so interesting ??
O. Dhananjaya
April 20, 2021
Nice ?
D Karthik
April 20, 2021
Why do we have the sun of the life tell me why we have other stares also
Akash
April 20, 2021
Fingerprints are unique
Nishi Mehta
April 20, 2021
Nice
Ayusman Rath
April 20, 2021
It is a great uniqueness gifted by nature to human.
AYISHAH rayis
April 20, 2021
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Krititwa Kumar
April 20, 2021
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Vidushi Saxena
April 20, 2021
Tell me
How finger prints are detected. What kind of friction is there between dermis and epidermis?
Saranga Bhargab Saikia
April 20, 2021
Thank you for such a nice elaboration
Thankyou to @teambyjus
shiv sharan singh
April 20, 2021
Does your explanation is of the level of class 5 students…explanation is good…but one must ensure that it can be understandable by level student
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April 20, 2021
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Thank you byjus team ……
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April 20, 2021
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April 20, 2021
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Shubhra
April 20, 2021
???
Shubhra
April 20, 2021
??
Ayush Kumar Singh
April 20, 2021
We have unique fingerprints because those are made just by the process of folding fingers and their movement.
Since the new born baby starts developing his/her fingers,the fingers start getting folded and their movement makes very small paths on the whole finger. To prove this, one can also consider the fact that most of the living beings fold their fingers in inside manner. Therefore fingerprints are found on the inner side of the finger. It is quite impossible that two living beings have same fingerprints but as for a rarest case,one might have one or more than one (rarer case) fingerprints.
Khushi
April 20, 2021
Tell me why all humans have different brain functioning regardless of same biological formation
Abaan
April 20, 2021
Thanks for the information
Kushal Kumar.P Teddy?
April 20, 2021
If there was a chance that once somebody lived with the fingerprint which someone has got now.
I mean can we know if our fingerprint doesn’t match to anyone in the entire world and among the old dead ones??
Sumanpreet kour
April 20, 2021
Every human being has different genetic information that lead to the formation of different parts
Suraj
April 20, 2021
Nice Information!!
Aaryan
April 20, 2021
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Vagisha Swastik
April 21, 2021
Gr8 information
Haripriyasinha
April 21, 2021
This is impossible can identical twins have same finger prints
Akshara Shrivastava
April 21, 2021
This is interesting and a little bit mind boggling one but I love it
Tanishk
April 21, 2021
The reason behind the unique fingerprints is the multifactorial inheritance i got it
Vanshika Deo
April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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tekchand
April 21, 2021
Why finger print are physical different
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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Anushka Rajput
April 21, 2021
Wow now I know about the fingerprints in details
Nemish nagaria
April 21, 2021
The finger print is made up of basic arengment of cell which take place at the birth. This finger print is formed uniquely in all the individual.
Ayush Anant Bankar
April 21, 2021
Fingerprint is most secure security because , it’s so unlikely anyone has the same fingerprints as you about a 1 in 64 billion chance.
Vijaya Yazhini S
April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
Why don’t twins have same fingerprint?
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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Ipshita Singh
April 21, 2021
We all have a unique fingerprint because to identify that with the help of their fingerprints . E.g. When a person didi a crim and he shot a person the his/her fingerprint will be on the gun .
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
Why some babies have 6 fingers?
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
Thank you BYJU’S
This question was asked by me, and I got the answer in a very simple and understanding way.
Dua .E.G
April 21, 2021
Every human has individual finger print. The lines on our finger tips are called friction ridges.
There is no single cause for our unique finger print design . Instead ,it is the result of both your genes and the environment this is called multifactorial inheritance. One major use of fingerprinting is related to criminal investigations. Even when there is no suspect in a crime, fingerprints can help develop leads and provide clues about the criminals. Though fingerprint examination is not a foolproof way to identify a person.
Trelok saride
April 21, 2021
In some cases finger prints can’t form in the stage of fetus . What is that conditions ?what science behind that conditions?same birth also happend recently without finger prints?is there any solution to this?
Aksa bhandari
April 21, 2021
Ans 1.The dermis (the inside skin layer) and epidermis (the outside skin layer) grow together. Friction ridges appear where these layers meet, guided by genes. … Everyone’s skin grows in a slightly different environment. That’s why it’s so unlikely anyone has the same fingerprints as you about a 1 in 64 billion chance.
Ans2.A person’s fingerprints are formed when they are a tiny developing baby in their mother’s womb. Pressure on the fingers from the baby touching, and their surroundings create what are called “friction ridges”, the faint lines you see on your fingers and toes.
Answer 3.Wertheim said that the ways criminals alter their fingerprints ranges from the low tech rubbing the skin, burning fingertips on a stove, dousing fingers in acid, and self-mutilation using razors to high tech surgery. … Criminals altering their fingerprints is not new, but their methods have changed.
Answer 4.But, like those who aren’t twins, identical twins all have unique fingerprints. Due to environmental factors that affect their development inside the womb, it’s impossible for identical twins to have the exact same fingerprints.
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April 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021
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Hritish maji
April 21, 2021
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Mishri N Kalariya
April 21, 2021
I understand today why fingerprints are there and how it is used and no body’s fingerprints are same very interesting information on fingerprints……???
Umme Habeeba
April 21, 2021
Awesome
Yogita
April 21, 2021
1 Fingerprints are short ridges on every finger that you have.
2 A veterans fingerprints are formed when they are small fillers that grow in there mother’s thunder
3 Yes
4 Yes
5 No
6 Fingerprints are used to identify unknown victims, witnesses or suspects, and most importantly, as links between a suspects and a crime.
Lekhana
April 21, 2021
It is truly incredible…. Even I had this question.. I liked the way you explained how fingerprints are made
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April 22, 2021
Very nice article 🙂
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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Arunima jyoti
April 22, 2021
Our Tongue prints are also unique ?
Did you know?
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April 22, 2021
Humans and some animals have fingerprint
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
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April 22, 2021
When twin babies are in their mother’s womb there is some chances that the twin babies have same fingerprint??????????
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April 22, 2021
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April 23, 2021
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April 23, 2021
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April 23, 2021
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April 23, 2021
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April 23, 2021
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April 23, 2021
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April 23, 2021
How stethoscope ? was invented
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April 24, 2021
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April 24, 2021
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April 24, 2021
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April 24, 2021
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April 25, 2021
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April 25, 2021
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April 25, 2021
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April 25, 2021
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April 25, 2021
Thanks for it ??
It was very interesting to read
Actually sometimes I questioned myself
Why do all are fingerprints aren’t the same
Thank you ?
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April 25, 2021
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April 25, 2021
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April 26, 2021
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April 26, 2021
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April 26, 2021
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April 26, 2021
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April 27, 2021
Q.1) Why flowers smell nice?
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April 28, 2021
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Tell me why do we see dreams
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April 30, 2021
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May 2, 2021
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Tell me why can’t we remember our dreams exactly ?
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May 2, 2021
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May 3, 2021
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May 4, 2021
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May 4, 2021
Why do some people have 6 fingers, 11 fingers in total?
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May 6, 2021
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May 7, 2021
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May 7, 2021
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May 9, 2021
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Are fingerprints present only in humans or in all spiciesof kingdom animalia?
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May 10, 2021
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May 11, 2021
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May 12, 2021
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May 13, 2021
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May 15, 2021
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May 16, 2021
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What is universe before converting planets?
May 22, 2021
what is universe before planets was convert
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May 22, 2021
Why we have only 5 fingers on our hand
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May 23, 2021
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May 23, 2021
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May 23, 2021
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May 27, 2021
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May 29, 2021
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June 2, 2021
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June 7, 2021
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June 8, 2021
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June 10, 2021
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June 14, 2021
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June 15, 2021
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