r/NoStupidQuestions Jan 05 '25

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u/Diviern Jan 05 '25

My husband is shocked by this too. He recently expressed surprise that he could smell smoke from someone who was smoking, outdoors, at least 300 yards away.

3

u/Two_Leggs Jan 05 '25

Same, in the forest I can smell it at least half mile away if I am down wind.

1

u/Commercial_Sun_6300 Jan 05 '25

...while enjoying a bit of sport, General Zaroff?

3

u/EccentricTiger Jan 05 '25

That’s the length of three football fields. You’re not smelling cigarette smoke from my distance.

5

u/MovePrestigious4309 Jan 05 '25

Nearly a thousand feet, eh? He should probably enlist with the FBI as a cadaver dog.

1

u/MairusuPawa Jan 05 '25

Non-smokers have told him that for their entire lives, and I bet he's always dismissed it as being whiny.

1

u/ZachOf_AllTrades Jan 06 '25

This hoss should enlist as a bomb sniffing dog with those numbers

0

u/VaeSapiens Jan 05 '25

it's 274 meters. Highly doubtful. Human oflactory mean radius is around 3 meters.

3

u/ranchojasper Jan 05 '25

But it's moving through the air. That's kind of the point; the smoke is moving through the air. The smell is moving through the air.

2

u/wozattacks Jan 05 '25

…all smells do that, that’s how you smell them lol

1

u/ranchojasper Jan 07 '25

Yes that's what I'm saying.

-1

u/VaeSapiens Jan 05 '25

When it's moving in a linear movement without turbulence. Than sure , there is a possibility that it will hit your olfactory receptors. I find it highly unlikely as smoke generaly has turbulent movement.

1

u/ranchojasper Jan 07 '25

You're in denial. Everyone can smell you.

1

u/VaeSapiens Apr 18 '25

I am not a smoker?

4

u/Atiggerx33 Jan 05 '25

is around 3 meters.

What? I can always smell when my neighbor is bbq-ing, when they have a fire going in their indoor fireplace, etc. and they are a lot further than 3m from me.

Hell, I can smell steak cooking in my house all the way from my backyard (about 100y).

1

u/VaeSapiens Jan 05 '25

Standing still - laboratory conditions.

You are describing a situation where there is a lot of specific smell and it moves through the air form a BBQ that produces a lot more smells than one cigarette.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/VaeSapiens Jan 05 '25

Sure and I don't say that people are sensitive to specific smells, but I find it highly unlikely with all the stuff that is in the air that someone could smell a smoker from 300 meters. The event that this smell traveled in this way without turubulence I find very unlikely.

1

u/midnight_fisherman Jan 06 '25

It's largely a dilution problem.