6.5 Glass: Nature, Glass Fractures and Examination

The nature: the silicate's transparency (the windows, bottles, the vehicle's glass; the tempered- vs-laminated). The fractures' forensics (the exam's core): the radial-and-concentric patterns (the crack's sequence — the first-and-later blows); the cone's direction (the force's side — the bullet's-and-blunt's entry); the bullet's sequence (the later shots' cracks stopping at the earlier); the velocity's faces (the fracture's shape — the high-vs-low energy). The examination: the refractive index (the immersion method — the glass's identity); the elemental analysis; the physical fit (the fragments'-and-source's jigsaw — the window's-and-suspect's-clothes' match); the direction-of-breaking's reconstruction (the scene's story from the shards).