Question: Since there is a speed of light and a speed of sound, is there a speed of smell?

Cheryl Andisi answered on 27 Jan 2017:

Hi Amanda,
I see where this is coming from 🙂 -senses. Right?
Sound and light are both made of some kind of waves that our eyes absorb, in order to see, or our ears transmit in order to hear. Smell, on the other hand, and taste are as a result of chemical composition. Different compounds in what you smell will travel at different rates depending on their composition before they get to the cells in your nose, which will send the information to the brain for you to smell.
All your senses have a dedicated part of the brain for interpretation and specific nerves for relaying this information. However, there are some disorders that get these mixed up so that people end up interpreting senses different eg hearing a smell, tasting a sound or tasting something you see- they call it synesthesia.

The brain can be fascinating!