On Sept. 10, 2000, after Knight was warned multiple times, a confrontation between Knight and an Indiana student prompted the school's president, Myles Brand, to fire him for a pattern of "defiant and hostile" behavior.

WSJ: Indiana Hoosiers Are Back, but Missing Bob Knight

But a V-shaped pattern by one of the doors suggested that the fire had originated elsewhere.

NEWYORKER: Trial by Fire

There are ways to systematically sort through the fire hose of data based on applying the principals and discipline of pattern recognition.

FORBES: The Future Of Search: Better Living Through Algorithms

There was also a V-shaped pattern by the living-room doorway, far from where the fire had started on the couch.

NEWYORKER: Trial by Fire

Then he discovered a new Japanese method of cutting diamonds: When viewed under a low-magnification (3x) lens, the stone refracted light in such a way as to give off a pattern of eight heart-shaped sparkles at the bottom of the diamond and eight arrow-shaped fire-bursts through the top--hence the name "hearts-and-arrows" diamonds.

FORBES: Stones on fire