Can Two People have Identical Fingerprints?
I was once watching a detective serial on T.V. where the fingerprints of the suspect are required. The hero invites the villain to his home and offers him a glass of water. The bad guy takes the glass and drinks the water from it. After he leaves the hero dramatically whips out a handkerchief and picks up the glass. His expressions showed that satisfaction at a job well done. At that time, I found it amazing – how can smudges on a glass identify people? How can my hand be different from yours – apart from the size that is? It was only after my dad explained me the reason that the mystery behind that highly dramatic scene became clear. My dad explained that if you were to press your thumb on an inkpad and then on a sheet of white paper you will leave a smudge or print, which no one else in the world can make. The same would be true for each of your fingers. The Chinese were the first to use fingerprints to affix their signature on important documents though they had no way of identifyin
