While it is true that smelling an object does not increase the frequency with which it releases odor, we can explore the idea further by rephrasing the question: “How many sniffs of an apple's scent are needed to equate to having smelled the entirety of an apple?”
Although I couldn’t find specific data on the density of apple scent in the air, a 2011 study suggests that the average lower threshold for detecting a smell in the air is around 2.77 mg/m³. Given that the scent of an apple is relatively faint, this threshold will serve as a reasonable estimate for our purposes.
According to a 2006 study, the average human sniff has a volume of approximately 500 cm³, or 0.0005 m³ . Using this data, we can estimate that one sniff of apple scent contains about 0.001385 mg of apple essence.
For comparison, an average medium-sized apple weighs roughly 182 grams, as noted in a 2023 article by Dr. Atli Arnarson for Healthline . Based on this information, it would take around 131.5 million sniffs to smell the entire mass of an apple. Given that each sniff takes approximately 1.6 seconds , and accounting for the time to exhale between sniffs, it would require nearly 14 years of continuous sniffing to fully smell an entire apple.
Kleinbeck S, Schäper M, Juran SA, Kiesswetter E, Blaszkewicz M, Golka K, Zimmermann A, Brüning T, Van Thriel C. Odor thresholds and breathing changes of human volunteers as consequences of sulphur dioxide exposure considering individual factors. Saf Health Work. 2011 Dec;2(4):355-64. doi: 10.5491/SHAW.2011.2.4.355. Epub 2011 Dec 5. PMID: 22953220; PMCID: PMC3430915.
Joel Mainland, Noam Sobel, The Sniff Is Part of the Olfactory Percept, Chemical Senses, Volume 31, Issue 2, February 2006, Pages 181–196, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjj012
Arnarson, A. (2023). Apples 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/apples
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