Stop! Look at the tip of your pointer finger. 👆
Do you see tiny swirly lines? Those are your fingerprints — and nobody else in the whole world has the same ones as you. Not your best friend. Not even a twin!
Your fingertip skin is not flat. It has tiny ridges — little hills of skin — with tiny valleys between them. The swirly pattern you see is the tops of those hills!
This is life-size. Tap the magnifier to zoom right in!
Whoa! Up close, the lines are chunky ridges of skin. The little orange dots are sweat pores — that's why your fingers leave marks on glass and on your tablet screen!
Think of the bottom of a running shoe. It has bumpy patterns so you don't slip. Scientists think your finger ridges work in a similar way — they help your skin hold on, especially to smooth or wet things.
Experiment time! A slippery, wet glass of milk needs holding. Which fingertip do you think grips it better? Tap your answer.
Your ridges also help you feel tiny details, like the bumps on a coin or the edge of a page. When your finger slides over something, the ridges wobble a little, and that helps the tiny feeling nerves under your skin send messages to your brain.
Be the sensitive finger! Slowly drag the finger 👆 across the bumpy ridges. Feel how each bump "buzzes"!
Bumps felt: 0 of 6
Fingerprints form before you are even born, while you grow inside your mum. The way you press and move makes a pattern that is totally your own. There are three main family shapes:
Even with these families, your exact swirls are one of a kind. 💫
Someone ate the last cookie and left a fingerprint on the jar! 🍪 Compare the crime-scene print to the three suspects. Which one matches exactly?
Crime-scene print:
Tap the matching suspect:
Here's everything you discovered: