Science Fair

Can people detect their own scent? My big question is “can people detect there own scent,” I wanted to do this experiment to find out if people can smell, what they smell like.

My Hypothesis My hypothesis is that, people will not be able to detect there own smell because, they are used to how they smell. I think this because, when I walk into my own house I cant smell anything, but when I walk into a friends house I can smell a difference, because that’s their scent and im not used to it.

Interesting Facts 1. People smell better with blindfolds on 2. People tend to look for something when they smell, they depend on products (i.e., perfume, cologne, ect.) 3. Shirts smell different, after being used, they smell like the clothes there wearing. 4. If shirts are dirty it can make a different outcome. 5. If shirts are newly washed it can bring a different outcome.

Experiment Materials 1. Three Shirts Newly washed 2. Three People 3. Blindfold Procedure 1. Label the Shirts (a, b, c, ect.) 2. Put the shirts on the people to wear for a couple of hours. Try not to get them too dirty 3. After a couple of hours have them change, and lay the shirts down on the table 4. Blindfold each person, and one-by- one, have them try to identify which shirt belongs to them. 5. Ask them why they chose that shirt. 6. Analyze the results. Control/variable stated 1. I could control how long they wear the shirts, different time could make different outcomes. 2. I could also control how dirty they got the shirts, that could also make different outcomes. 3. The people I use could also make the outcomes different, because if they are not related they will have different smells.

Observations 1. I did observe that, they put on different products (perfume, cologne, ect.) 2. When they were blindfolded, they smelled each shirt carefully, and tried to find something similar, to what they were used to. 3. Some had trouble with identifying smell, because they were so used to how each other smelled, because they were related. 4. They didn’t take the longest time to try to identify the smell. 5. What you wear can identify how you smell.

Data and Analyze Data 1. 2 of the three people could figure out which shirt was theirs of the 2 people couldn’t because of confusion of the perfume. 3. female and male products can also easily separate which shirt is there ans which shirt isnt. 1. Analyzing the data shows me that being a specific gender can easily separate you. 2. Since I had one male, two females, the females got confused if that was there perfume they were wearing or if it wasn’t. 3. The male could easily, tell which shirt was his, and he did it rapidly. 4. The experiment did test my hypothesis but it didn’t support my hypothesis. It didn’t support it because they didn’t really care if they were used to each others smell, they used common sense, to define which shirt was theirs.

Conclusion My hypothesis was not correct. I would change my experiment by having them wear shirts without products, that can define smell. Some new questions I have are, does it make a difference if they wear a blindfold or not, and if they can identify there own smell, without products.