Heard That Humans Can Smell 10,000 Odors? Here’s Why You Heard That.

If you pound around online , you ’ll come up someone take authoritatively that humans can severalize 10,000 odors . unluckily , that ’s not true . It ’s based on an experimentation from the 1920s , that tried — and fail — to quantify odour . But here ’s how it became a popular fact .

In 1927 , scientist Lloyd Henderson and Ernest Crocker set about by breaking scent down into what they considered four major components ; fragrant , superman , burnt , and caprylic . Fragrant is flowered and fruity . Acid and burn are self - explanatory . Carprylic is “ animal smell . ” The two even came up with chemicals that were characteristic of each smell . For lesson , harmonise to Henderson and Crocker , “ bite ” was characterized by the compound guaiacol , which is a chemical compound usually present in woodwind instrument smoke .

Crocker and Henderson resolve that each scent component part would be rated in intensity from 0 to 8 . In any given feel , each of the element would be rated on its proportional loudness . A rose , the scientists decided , was a6 fragrant , 4 acid , 2 burn , 3 caprylic , or 6423 . Every olfaction imaginable , then , could be assigned a four - digit number . Their system of rules allow for 6,561 different identifiable perfume . Because they had done research on the subject of sense of smell , they became the go - to guy cable to ask about scent . No one object when Crockerrounded the 6,561 olfactory property up to 10,000 scents a few yearsafter their experiment .

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It ’s a very prissy round number , and we care pear-shaped bit , which is why it has been kicking around public cognisance since the thirties . Sensory psychologist Avery Gilbert evennotedthat it was cited in a press departure from theNobel Assembly . However , it ’s not based on anything more than a fierce estimate of a blemished system .

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