ELI5, how do certain smells seem to travel faster than air currents?

Question

I’m thinking of my middle school science class where the teacher opened a bottle of butyric acid and within a second everyone in the room could smell it even though the air was still. It made our whole school reek for weeks.

I remember being shocked at how quickly the smell traveled. How does that happen?

In: 5

Answer 1

Molecules in the air are moving around 1000 miles per hour. They can cross a room in no time at all.

In still air the directions are random and cancel out so you don’t feel like you’re in a hurricane.

Noses can be quite sensitive to certain things, so you don’t need much butyric acid to reach you.