We smell menthol and it doesn't seem to melt. We smell play-dough and deodorant, too, and they don't seem to melt and then evaporate. So is it possible that some solids can completely skip the melting/evaporation phases and go straight from a solid to a gas?
The answer is yes!
And the process is sublimation. When solids change from a solid to a gas, they sublimate. Much of what we smell is because of this process. We'll be using this process to help explain why we smell an odor from a distance...
The answer is yes!
And the process is sublimation. When solids change from a solid to a gas, they sublimate. Much of what we smell is because of this process. We'll be using this process to help explain why we smell an odor from a distance...