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Evaluation of Match Criteria Used for the Comparison of Refractive Index of Glass Fragments * ,†,‡,§
Author(s) -
Garvin Elizabeth J.,
Koons Robert D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01634.x
Subject(s) - float glass , statistics , resampling , mathematics , interval (graph theory) , refractive index , optics , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , chemistry , physics , combinatorics , chromatography , composite material
For comparative glass examinations, the refractive indices (RIs) of recovered glass fragments are often compared to a test interval defined by measurements from a broken glass object. RI measurements from five modern float glasses were used via resampling to assess the frequencies of false exclusion errors for eight test criteria as functions of the number of measurements. The test criteria were based on ranges, fixed intervals, and multiples of standard deviations of the known source measurements. The observed error rates for the eight tests studied are between zero and c. 35%, depending upon the match criteria, the number of measurements, and the RI distribution for a glass source. The results of this study can be used to predict the false exclusion rate for a test criterion under a given set of conditions or to select test criteria that result in a desired error rate for these typical sheet glasses.