STORM2K

Is there a speed of smell?

Any comments from the pros on here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Well, I can't quite tell if this was a serious question, but ...

In a closed container with absolutely no air movement, a smell would disperse by Brownian motion in a spherical pattern around the source. I'm afraid it's been too many decades since I studied chemistry for me to give you the equation for the rate off the top of my head, but I can say that it is dependent on temperature and pressure.

In most any real-world situation, of course, there's a lot of movement to the air - wind, turbulence, convection etc. which would overwhelm the Brownian dispersion.

So while the theoretical answer is yes, the practical answer is no.

I checked in my secret files. Bacon is in first place. You don't want to know what holds second place.