What is a smell?

Question

Is a smell actually particles of the object in question floating in the air?

I.e, if you can smell strawberries in a field, are you actually ingesting tiny particles of strawberry or is it a different thing all together?

Answer 1

Yes it is particles floating on the air. That is why you don't want to smell fart.

Coach

Answer 2

You are partially right.

The smell you smell is actually the smell molecules (which is like organic molecules) produced by the item. These molecules are then detected by receptors in your nose. Your nose's nerves then convert the signal and transmit it to your brain. Then you know that it is a smell.

The smell is not the strawberry itself. It is like every part of a strawberry is made for a purpose. The smell molecules are produced to attract animals to eat them. Actually it is a combintion of the small, colourful sight and great taste. So that their seeds can be carried by the animal to a further place to be deposited. It then can grow at a different place but still not too far to avoid overcrowding.

They are smell molecules, produced by the item.

Answer 3

Smell, or olfaction, is a sense, a way for the organism to take information from the environment and process it for conscious or unconscious reference. In particular, smell is how we gather information about certain molecules that are dissolved in the air. Those chemicals interact with specific receptors (humans have 347 different types) that send signals up to the brain, where the information ultimately gets processed to the point that we "know" we smell smoke, or strawberries, or a dead animal. Various combinations and permutations of the different receptor types allow us to distinguish a wide variety of smells in our world.

As for the strawberries, you care smelling a bouquet of chemicals, many of them ketones and aldehydes, that plants have evolved to produce when the friut is ripe. That bouquet is picked up by animals and insects that will be attracted to the fruit, eat it, and so (ultimately) spread the seeds of the plant to other areas, thus ensuring the survival of the plant species.

Answer 4

Smell is simply a sense detected by the brain. Just like the strawberry does not have to land on your eye for you to see it (sense of sight) similarly a strawberry does not have to land in your nose to smell it.

Answer 5

smell is one of your other senses! no, particles of strawberries won`t be ingested by your nose, at least you are an elephant...

Answer 6

Yes, it is small particles.

So a fart smell is tiny bits of poo. Your body makes you think it's a bad smell, as a way of saying "dont breath that sh1t in".

Answer 7

yes thats exactly it, but what is more disturbing is that when you smell a fart, then its actually tiny poo particles in your nose!

truly disgusting.

Answer 8

it is the interaction between a thing and the kind of molecules its made out of and its chemical reaction with the nervous system and brain.

Answer 9

it is the interaction between a thing and the kind of molecules its made out of and its chemical reaction with the nervous system and brain.

so,basically, you are correct

Answer 10

i always think that, thats why i make such a fuss when someone farts near me, i don't want to be inhaling something that has just passed through there bum hole!!