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lionkingcmslThey are "No two people have the same fingerprints" and "No two snowflakes are alike."
These are axioms that are impossible to prove/disprove, but are accepted as fact.
The first is impossible to prove/disprove as we do not have fingerprints for every one alive, and we don't have complete records for those that have lived before. While fingerprint for use in crime investigation does go back to the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE), complete fingerprinting was rare. So given the billions of people that have lived before and the 7 billion plus that are alive now, I feel that it is very unlikely that no two people never have the same fingerprints.
With snow it is much the same story, with the addition of examining snow crystals is that much harder. Given the incalculable number of snowflake that have fallen in the 4 billion plus years the Earth has been around to definitely say the no two snowflakes have the same pattern is bordering on hyperbole. It would be better to say, "It is unlikely that no two snowflakes have the same pattern."
These are axioms that are impossible to prove/disprove, but are accepted as fact.
The first is impossible to prove/disprove as we do not have fingerprints for every one alive, and we don't have complete records for those that have lived before. While fingerprint for use in crime investigation does go back to the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE), complete fingerprinting was rare. So given the billions of people that have lived before and the 7 billion plus that are alive now, I feel that it is very unlikely that no two people never have the same fingerprints.
With snow it is much the same story, with the addition of examining snow crystals is that much harder. Given the incalculable number of snowflake that have fallen in the 4 billion plus years the Earth has been around to definitely say the no two snowflakes have the same pattern is bordering on hyperbole. It would be better to say, "It is unlikely that no two snowflakes have the same pattern."
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 08:51 pm (UTC)OTOH, B.C. once showed Peter four identical snowflakes, and Peter responded "I said no *two* were alike."
no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 09:07 pm (UTC)You're more likely to meet someone who is somewhere along the line in same DNA sub-family within the same State, county, half of the country than ever before.
Errors in DNA is an increase in disabilities that are there during birth.
But yep, even DNA can not be individually different either...
no subject
Date: 2012-05-09 03:45 am (UTC)With all the fingerprint databases I wonder if anyone has ever tried comparing every single fingerprint with every other fingerprint in the same database.
Certainly I'd expect that when performing an official search there would be some tollerances programmed into the system. I wonder if ever, through such searches, anyone has received more than 1 match for a single fingerprint.