How does something give off a smell?

It sends out little microscopic particles that your sensors in your nose picks up.

So yes, when you a smell pooh, the is pooh in your nose.

When your question first appeared on my “home” page, this was coincidentally displayed:

JackAdams
Wow. You smell really good.

August 26, 2008, 4:08 AM EDT

I don’t believe you actually have pooh in your nose, I think you’re smelling the gases given off by (and mixed in with) the pooh. They travel a little better than actual solid pooh.

Nothing like a little pooh talk at 3 in the morning.

I think most things are similar, they give off a certain signature of goodies (gases, tiny airborne particles) into the air which creates a high concentration near the source. Those goodies are what you smell and associate with that thing, whether it’s baking cookies or the dumpster down the road.

Everything gives off a smell, we just can’t always pick up on it.

(Okay, it’s a theory in the early stages!)

@loser Exactly so. More than a theory.

Simone54 is right, it’s molecules floating in the air that allow use to smell, so about the pooh thing, it’s totally true :p

Plus I’ll add that some materials are easier to smell, because of their molecular structure : metals are not really “smelling”, this is due to the fact that their molecules are really close and that they can’t easily move or be detached of the object.