Speed of smell

Long back, sometime during my 9th Standard in school I and my neighborhood friend tried to find out the speed of smell. The story of that so called discovery follows!

I was sitting on the gallery watching outside. Hm… You are correct; I did not have any other better activity to do that day. I got this thought on “rate at which the smell propagates”. If we have some rational value for Speed of light and sound, why there is no such value for speed of smell? May be it is there? If it is, then sure that would be included in our physics syllabus! (Ah… I din know google at that time to key-in a search). So I assumed it is not found yet!!

At that time my friend Manoj came to my home. I told him about this thought; he was thinking for a while and asked me about experimenting it!! May not be accurately possible, but still a rough figure can be found; we decided to ditch cricket and give it a try.

We took a stop watch, a measuring tape and a perfume spray. We closed all the doors and windows. He stood some 15 feet away and once I spray the scent he will start the stop watch timer. As soon as he senses the smell he will stop the timer and note down the time taken! Repeat the process with different distance, location and perfume. We came to a consensus that this would be a nice way to start.

We took the first reading and found some X feet per second as speed. Then we started unleashing our dream devils. One devil said we will become like Newton and Einstein if we can successfully find the speed of smell. Other devil said; let’s not call the unit as feet per second. It should be in Bhojs (Bhavan + Manoj). If Kg-m/s2 is Newton and N/m2 is Pascal why not speed of smell be measured in Bhojs. Very Valid!!

M: Okay, but to do this firstly we need to get a patent after finding this Bhavan?

B: Okay Manoj, we can ask help from our Physics teachers.

M: But Bhavan, it is risky to leak this out. They would just give some minor suggestions and finally steal all credits form us. We would just be projected as their assistants. Even I heard Sir CV Raman’s Nobel Prize invention was actually his assistant’s work.

B: Sir CVR is my maternal grandmother’s relative, you know! I have heard that allegation. Or even I would say it a grapevine. But sure people are not that cheap da…

M: Which era are you in da. Majority of people are trying to use and exploit whenever possible. In my cousin brother’s company, he did some new creative work and his seniors just took the credit of it. Moreover, they presented it to the manager as their work just in front of my cousin. Only option he had was to keep mum. Never say about this to anyone da. Just be silent.

B: Hm.. Okay then, let’s carry on with readings. (But in 1 hour I leaked it out to atleast 3 people. Keeping a secret is next to impossible for Bhavan!!)

After taking five set of readings, we found there was no linearity and felt some more readings can give a clear picture. A week rolled on and at different places, different time and with different perfumes, we took a page full of data. There was much of a variation. For same distance the reading was different at different location.

Then we understood something fundamental. Unlike Sound or Light, it is not a self propagating wave. It depends on the medium that carries it (air in our case). Smell mixes witht he molecules of air and is propagated through that. If the air circulation is better, the so called speed of smell is faster. But through this I can confront anyone saying speed of sound as 330m/s. It is not always so. Again depends on the air circulation. Speed of sound varies from zero to even more than 330 m/s, depending on parameters like air circulation, composition, ect. When air circulation in nil (vacuum) the speed of sound is zero!! As air circulation varies the speed of sound will change (close to 330m/s though)!!

When I first said that the speed of sound cannot be taken just like that as 330 m/s, my physics teacher was not convinced. Rather she felt I am just thinking something crazy and wasting the time of whole class. I told it depends on the air circulation and composition of air and if the circulation or composition changes, the speed of sound will change, at least by a very meager proportion. She asked me a question after hearing me. I write the word hearing specifically because; she just heard (difference b/w hearing and understanding) what I spoke. If she would have understood, the discussion would have been different. “Bhavan, when there is heavy wind (blowing from speaker to the listener) can the listener hear the person speaking with same clarity as you hear me now (in this closed room)”. Hm… I was not having an answer that time. Rather i can put it this way too. Was not interested to discuss more! Clarity is a quality parameter of sound. It has nothing to do with the speed of sound wave. In heavy wind, there is a lot of disturbance and the clarity of the speaker’s voice is lost. Clarity rather depends on the energy of the sound created. It has nothing to do with the parameter called speed, my dear teacher!! I can prove it with a small example. Sound travels faster in steel than air. Reason: density of steel in more than that in air. When air circulation/ composition changes, the density of the medium will change and will affect the speed of propagation!!

A Corporate Lesson

I was on the final year of my graduation. As a move to help our department juniors and get them prepared for campus selection, we conducted mock placement interviews. We religiously followed the campus selection process. All the 65 people underwent a technical written test. Then we conducted GD and finally there was a technical and HR interview. Our college had MBA course and we sought help from the HR Spec students. In one panel myself, my professor and a HR student were interviewing my juniors. We recorded the whole interview in camera so that it can be discussed as case study with others and general learning points can be drafted.

One guy entered the panel and he had a decent score in written test. Also he had a fair knowledge on his area of interest. My professor was happy to pass him through technical interview. Now the HR student will be conducting the interview. She asked him some personal questions. He did quite ok.
HR Student: What’s your memorable day in Life?

Junior: What do you mean by that? Like?

HR Student: I mean the ever cherishing one, an event that you will never forget.

Junior: Well, I can just remember one incident that happened in my school days. When I was in 10th a group opposite to me got punishment from my principal blah blah blah…. and I enjoyed that thoroughly!

Finally after my junior left I saw the HR interview comments. Nothing was mentioned about this “memorable day” answer! I asked the HR student, and I got a different reply. She just told his attitude is positive for the company.

Bhavan: How come? I thought you would atleast say that was an immatured answer?

HR: Let it be. But it is good for the person who manages him. He has a good technical knowledge and you guys approved it. Also his marks reflect his commitment. His expectations are very little. He would be satisfied if his boss comes and just says “You did a good Job”. I can keep him satisfied by just giving lower perks.

It took me two and a half years of corporate life to understand what she said that day!!!

Brand Killing

It was a fine Saturday evening. I and my friend Sashi decided to watch a movie(London Dreams). We started at 8:10pm and we reached the nearest theater (Fame, Fatima Nagar, Pune) at 8:25pm. We saw a pizza hut near by and decided to have dinner before watching the movie. I went to the ticket queue and he went inside pizza hut to grab a table. I got the ticket and he was standing outside pizza hut. He had just booked a table and our waitlist number was 3. Hm… Okay even if we get a table at 8:35, it would hardly take 15 minutes to eat and anyways our movie was at 9:15. Worth waiting!!

Finally as planned we went in at 8:35. A waiter came to our table with a big grin. And here comes a conversation.

Waiter: Good evening sir! Welcome to pizza hut sir... Sir... Sir bla bla bla sir... (A sir for each sentence. Is this a fast food chain or a swish restaurant??? Anyways I thought the franchise wanted to attract local people who love such hospitality!)

Bhavan: Could you bring an Exotic Pizza and Garlic bread (Of course pizza itself is exotic to us). Also two cokes as soon as possible.

Waiter: Your order would take 20 minutes Sir.

Bhavan: Sorry. Can you please bring it in 5 minutes? We got to rush for a movie

Waiter: Not possible sir… Sir… Sir… Sir… Sir bla bla bla sir...

Sashi was smiling sarcastically… I know the reason for that smile. We many times had conversation about how a manufacturing engineer and a quality engineer would deal things. I also know he will demonstrate the “quality engineer’s” way of dealing.

Sashi: Cancel everything (Just like saying nothing has passed the quality test. Scrap everything). What ever you can bring in 5 minutes, just bring that.

Waiter: So you will be having only two cokes?

I just started laughing usuriously seeing how Sashi’s dealing became a flop! The waiter’s face became pale and to sustain the aura around I told the waiter that you have a great sense of humor! Waiter became very happy. Hm... It’s a curse that men carry! If someone says to a man that he is very humorous he would start jumping with josh to the extremes!!

Bhavan: Please bring us the previous order. But a bit quick! 20minutes is too long!

Sashi was speaking in phone to someone and I was left out with my thoughts. Its obviously not the waiter’s wish to call everyone sir 10 times. Also this hospitality is least expected from a fast food chain. All we need is to get the food in seconds! That’s the basic need and if this franchise is not meeting this expectation what is the use of hospitality. Next time I would prefer Inox to Fame. The reason is because of Mc Donald’s and Central Park near to Inox. If i should have food and if the movie starts in 10 minutes I can go to Mc D or if the movie is after 2 hrs I can spend that time in Central Park (where just to bring the bill, they take minimum 15 minutes). That’s a big positive point which Inox has.

I am not a full supporter for Mc D though. It introduced the 1minute service or free coke deal and this has been a bigger trouble, atleast to me. You either get your order within 1 minute or you stand there for next 5 minutes. If the “turn around time” for your order crosses 1 min, then 2 mins or 10 mins it just costs one coke to the franchise. The waiters will be concentrating on others who’s TAT has not crossed 1 min and you just gotta wait… I wrote this in their feedback form! Also mentioned, the deal has to be reframed as one coke for delay in each minute. Means, if you are waiting for 5 minutes you get 5 cokes :-)


Okay Let us come back to the story in pizza hut. We got the order in less than 10 minutes. Infact the guys who came before us and sitting in the neighborhood were looking at the ceiling still! Our waiter came back with the order and shared a couple of Poor Jokes… I remembered what my friend Bala told!

In this era if you want to be a successful business man, its only possible
through creating an emotional bonding with customers. Technology or innovation
can just bring great business. But sustaining is more on this emotional bonding.
It works well with any living thing for that sake!!

Even my company’s one of the core policies “Integrity” is based on what our customers (mostly US farmers) value more. WOW! I really felt it today. Unexpectedly we just appreciated our waiter’s humor sense and that did create a sense of closeness. He made sure we do not get delayed for our movie!!