How well can we tell smells

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Today teacher challenged us with a smelling test. Yes, it was a smelling test and not a spelling test! She had three containers. We had to smell each and tell teacher what we thought was in each. Here are the results:
Of the 21 children in our class, 8 correctly guessed one smell (not the same smell was guessed by each child though). No one correctly guessed either two or three of the substances though.
In container 1 there was vinegar. (6 correct guesses). Some of the incorrect guesses were: sour, oil, lemon.
In container 2 there was vanilla essence. (No one guessed this). Some incorrect guesses were: medicine, chocolate, coke, juice, coffee, syrup.
In container 3 there was lemon wash-up liquid (2guessed correctly). Some incorrect guesses were: pear, oil, fizzy orange, juice, soap, orange juice, vinegar, perfume.
It's amazing how hard it is to correctly identify smells that are so familiar if you can't see its original container!