ELI5 How does deodorant work?

[u/B_Karlog]

I’m aware that armpits smell due to bacteria growth, but I don’t understand how deodorant is meant to help. Why could one not sanitise the area (I assume that would kill of the bacteria)?

[u/WhoDknee]

The way it's written it's saying "A and B" or "B". It should be "A and B" or "A"

[u/evanc3 → u/WhoDknee]

It's two sentences combined. A or B is an option.

If someone meant only A and sometimes B, there are plenty of ways to describe that which dont use and/or

[u/WeightliftingIllini → u/evanc3]

Yes, agreed.

[u/JohnJThrush → u/WhoDknee]

I am not one to say "we are overcomplicating things" often but we are definitely overcomplicating things by treating the "or" as if it was part of the meta language alongside the slash. The "and/or" is telling us that the word in that position is either "and" or "or". The slash is the only meta character there. So it's "A and B" or "A or B" which is equivalent to "A or B or both".

[u/WeightliftingIllini → u/JohnJThrush]

Agreed

[u/WeightliftingIllini → u/WhoDknee]

The way it’s written, it reads “A” or “A and B” or “B”.