Ducati Monster Forum

Kitchen Sink => No Moto Content => Topic started by: DucPete on May 22, 2008, 07:55:22 AM

Title: What is smell?
Post by: DucPete on May 22, 2008, 07:55:22 AM
What exactly is your sense of smell and how does it work?

There are smell sensors in your nose that send a signal to your brain that you smell something and how that thing smells.

Something has to actually cause the sensor to react.  For instance when you smell a flower SOMETHING has to come in contact with the nerve that senses the scent.  This would help explain why certain people with severe nut allergies cant even be in the same room with nuts, or can't eat food prepared where nuts were also prepared.  Some bit of the substance you're smelling has traveled in the air and gone into your nose causing you to detect it through your sense of smell..    Right?

So here's the big one....   I went to the bathroom at work and someone was taking a major smelly shit.    Does this mean that what was in that persons ass floated INTO my nose causing me to smell it?   [puke]  Little bits of someone else's ass matter were inside my nose?

Please help.

Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Mother on May 22, 2008, 07:57:00 AM
yep, you have doodoo in your sniffer
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: T-byrd on May 22, 2008, 07:59:46 AM
Go rent 'Ice Storm' if you haven't already seen it, this very thing is discussed at some point.  Great movie too.  [thumbsup]

T
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Big Troubled Bear on May 22, 2008, 08:01:50 AM
Yep [bang]
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: DucPete on May 22, 2008, 08:06:55 AM
Quote from: T-byrd on May 22, 2008, 07:59:46 AM
Go rent 'Ice Storm' if you haven't already seen it, this very thing is discussed at some point.  Great movie too.  [thumbsup]

T

Added to my Blockbuster list.   Thanks  [thumbsup]

Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: jswledhed on May 22, 2008, 12:57:48 PM
Volatile Organic Compounds, VOCs for short, my friend.  Just about anything organic produces VOCs in some form.  Some things produce them in higher quantities, others in lower quantities.  It is these molecules, plus a few inorganic compounds like hydrogen sulfide, that provide a scent.  How they interact with your nosey, I'm not sure.  I imagine its similar to the way your taste buds function.

So, no you didn't have someone's ass in your nose.  But, you did have many thousands of parts per million of CH4 and H2S, among other vile smelling compounds related to the dropper's diet that erupted from the aforementioned deuce the second it hit air, floating in your sinuses.
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: BMR on May 22, 2008, 01:05:15 PM
....and because we're all sophisticated, and own fine Italian machines, etc... Let's call it the olfactory sense..   [thumbsup]

Oh, and btw...

YOU HAVE DOODIE IN YOUR NOSE!

sorry
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Rameses on May 22, 2008, 04:15:42 PM
Why stop with your nose?

Think about it.

Did you inhale through your mouth at any point?

And it most likely made it all the way to your lungs.

;D
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: MendoDave on May 22, 2008, 04:19:38 PM
And stuck to your tounge.
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: ROBsS4R on May 22, 2008, 04:39:52 PM
I wish I didn't read this.

I just went to the crapper and when the smell hit me I gagged.

Everything was okay once I masked the original smell with my smell though  [thumbsup]
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Kaveh on May 22, 2008, 05:48:14 PM
just think, if you're smelling it, it's everywhere else too, like your face, mouth, eyes, lips, inside your mouth...
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Mother on May 22, 2008, 06:06:42 PM
Yep, we're all covered in doodoo
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Buckethead on May 22, 2008, 06:24:06 PM
There's only one thing known to get fecal matter off of facial tissues.

Oleoresin capsicum.

Just spray it on and, voila, you're doody free.
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Mother on May 22, 2008, 06:27:23 PM
we need a burning eyes smilie
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: Buckethead on May 22, 2008, 06:40:21 PM
Quote from: Mother on May 22, 2008, 06:27:23 PM
we need a burning eyes smilie

Glad somebody got it.  [thumbsup]
Title: Re: What is smell?
Post by: NAKID on May 22, 2008, 07:34:05 PM
Quote from: jswledhed on May 22, 2008, 12:57:48 PM
But, you did have many thousands of parts per million of CH4 and H2S, among other vile smelling compounds

H2S is actually colorless and odorless though. Deadly in confined spaces.

I'm not sure that H2S is excreted by the body. It is produced by the decay of the feces itself, so it probably isn't present in the body in any real measurable amount. It is however found in sewage treatment plants and marine sanitation devices (shipboard CHT (collection, holding and transfer) tanks)....