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The swelling in your nose or mucus in your nose keeps the air which carries odors from reaching the nerves that detects and registers "smells" to your brain.
This also affects taste. 80% of taste is from the nerves (olfactory bulb) high in the nose; while 20% is from the mouth - sweet, sour, etc. This involves what is called "retro" that is - odor molecules travel through your mouth through the back of your throat and up into the nasal area and up to the olfactory bulb. If your nasal passages high in the nasal area are swollen shut you will not smell nor taste. When the infection or cold starts to subside you find that your sense of smell is now too strong due to the nerves becoming irritated. This will also subside. The nerve ending that smell and taste are renewed about every 40 days.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
When you have a cold, the nasal passages become swollen and filled with mucus, which can block the scent receptors in your nose. This congestion prevents odors from reaching the receptors and being detected, which is why you may have difficulty smelling things when you have a cold.
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Can krill smell things?
well, krill cant "smell" things by the human definition using air to smell. however, they can detect odors using water as a medium.
Can a fly smell?
Yes, they can!They use their hairs that cover their body to smell and feel things around them.
Why did you lose your taste buds after a cold?
Smell is a large part of taste. If you can't smell, things will taste differently.
Dogs cant smell through?
Through what? Word your things better! THINK!!!! I mean really.
What animals cant smell?
All animals can smell, they do smell and can.
Why cant you smell cold food from far while you can smell hot food from far?
It is possible to smell food when it is cold. However, it is much easier to smell food when it is hot. The heat gives off thermal energy, which makes it simpler to smell. Because hot food is much simpler to smell, hotter food often tastes better than colder food. If a food smells good to someone, then it often has a better taste, too. Edit: If the cold food has spice on it, then yes! Or if it has garlic in it!
When you kiss someone can they smell your breath?
They cant smell it but they can taste it
Research why thing smell different when they are cold compared to when they are heated up?
When things get cooled down, they lose the smell of the ingredients used in them. Heat acts as a ingredient itself. When you heat things back up, it brings the main ingredients back to life. You can smell them easier.
Why can you smell things hot things but not smell cold things?
Its like water. Can you smell water? NO! So the cold things have ice on them, and the ice is made of water. You can't smell it. You can't smell boiling water either, so that argument doesn't hold.Other things smell when its cold like petrol (gasoline).AnswerWhen things are heated the molecules vibrate more rapidly, some molecules may gain enough energy the become a gas, but not all of them or your chocolate bar would evaporate! The gas molecules can diffuse through the air and up your nose where they can be sensed by chemical receptors. This makes cooking food that is very hot smell great.If the object is cold the molecules will have less energy and fewer will become gaseous meaning fewer molecules reach your chemical receptors so the object will be harder to smell. Therefore you can't smell frozen foods very well at all.Some molecules evaporate very easily such as petrol molecules, this means that you can smell them even though it is cold. Many molecules we just arn't very good at sensing, like water and oxygen, I guess we just don't have the correct chemical receptors. Imagine if we could smell how humid the day was for example, it would be a pain really and take a lot of brain power.
Do hamster cages smell?
a tiny bit if its in your room you cant smell it
What cant You see or smell?
air
Why can't i smell anything when i have a cold?
Because your nasal passage is congested. That means the smell cannot travel to your brain.
