Is there a speed of smell?
Olivia Hensley
Updated on February 25, 2026
The time it takes to smell a chemical in the air is the time the chemical takes to travel in air to our nose, and for the nerve impulse to travel to the brain (milliseconds), so smells are almost instantaneous.
How far can smell travel?
SMELL TRAVELS 1,500 YARDS“I object to the proposed commercial growth of marijuana adjacent to my home,” said Richard Cooper, an attorney who lives near proposed Giffen Avenue cannabis-cultivation sites, all indoors, the largest in Santa Rosa.