Question

1. While sitting at the front of the classroom, someone walks in while wearing strong perfume. Within seconds, the smell is noticed by other students in front of the room. A student sends a text message to a friend in the back of the classroom who claims he cannot smell the perfume. Explain why the smell will eventually reach him. Given enough time, what will eventually happen to the perfume molecules?

Answer 1

The smell of the perfume will take a bit of time to reach the last student of the class. The reason for the delay is that the odour of the body mixed with the perfume particles will make the perfume particles to move in the air due to diffusion.

As this diffusion process will lead to the particles to move from the higher concentration to lower concentration of the odour. And as the particles move in this way the movement is slow.

The perfume molecules will take some time to reach the last student.