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

Air and molecules are always moving, the air movement you sense and feel is just a portion of the actual flows always happening — the portion that happens to be enough to trigger senses.