[Biology]

[Secret Scents]

[Theory:]
[Did you know... Your sense of smell is around 10000 times more powerful than your sense of taste!] Scent is one of our most powerful senses; smells often remind us of certain events. Are you reminded of anything when you smell certain things (like fresh cut grass, or salty sand)? The secret scent test will let you test how keen your sense of smell is. Have fun and see if you can figure out all of the secret scents.

[Materials:]

[Procedure:]
  1. Fill the film canisters with the different materials, and mix them up so you don't know which is which.
  2. One at a time, without looking, smell the contents of each film canister, and write down what you think is inside.
  3. Now look in the film canisters, and see if you were right!

[Conclusions:]
Most people can distinguish thousands of different smells. You smell something when the air you breathe passes by smell receptors in your nostrils. Ordinarily, though, only a small part of this air actually reaches these receptors. So if you want to be able to smell something better, you should sniff more deeply.

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Produced by Galactics.
Comments: galactics@spacesim.org.
Last updated on 14 August 1998.