Science+Experiment


 * Topic:** Odors and moods.


 * Question:** Do odors affect people's mood? If so how?

Smell is often our first response to stimulation. It alerts us to fire before we see flames. It makes us recoil before we taste rotten food. Scientists are still exploring how, precisely, we pick up odorants, process them and interpret them as smells. Smell, like taste, is a chemical sense detected by sensory cells called chemoreceptors. When an odorant stimulates the chemoreceptors in the nose that detect smell, they pass on electrical impulses to the brain. The brain then interprets patterns in electrical activity as specific odors. My opinion on this is that people get effected easily by certain smells. Well of course bad scents like ammonia, your going to react to. It is not a very pleasant smell. Then there's cinnamon and lavender which is nice, and most likely your not going to have a bad smell reaction to. Different people have different reactions. Maybe males have different reactions, than females. http://www.senseofsmell.org/feature/smell101/lesson1/01.php http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/587389/can_your_sense_of_smell_affect_your.html?cat=5 http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=do-scents-affect-peoples
 * Background Information:**
 * (Sites)**


 * Hypothesis:** My experiment will demonstrates exposures of different types of odors and It will affect a persons mood.

1). Research psychological studies on the affects of smell on our mood. What kind of results do you think you will have with the smells selected? Hypothesize on what you think people? reactions will be. 2). Get the following candle scents- Pine - Vinegar - Cinnamon candle - Lavender candle - 3). Find a person willing to have you test the scents on them. 4). Have the person close their eyes and relax. 5). Place each bottle, one at a time, under their nose and have them tell you how the smell makes them feel. Take your time. 6). Record results after each scent. 7). Give the person a moment to clear the smell and continue with your testing. 8). Go through each scent with each person to create a graph that records everyones response.
 * Procedure:**


 * Materials:**
 * Pine
 * Vinegar
 * Cinnamon candle
 * Lavender candle
 * Pencil
 * Graph
 * Paper


 * Experiment:** (Do the experiment)

Unpleasant || Mood for Lavender Candle: Pleasant || Reaction for Vinegar: Bad || Reaction for Lavender Candle: Good || Unpleasant || Mood for Cinnamon Candle Pleasant || Reaction for Pine: Bad || Reaction for Cinnamon Candle: Good || Unpleasant || Mood for Lavender Candle: Pleasant || Reaction for Vinegar: Bad || Reaction for Lavender Candle: Good || Unpleasant || Mood for Cinnamon Candle: Pleasant || Reaction for Vinegar: Bad || Reaction for Cinnamon Candle: Good || Smell is an amazing thing us humans can do. We can smell things that are appealing, and things that are not so appealing. After doing this experiment, I have learned that smelling odors or scents does affect a humans mood. So as I stated in my hypothesis, I happened to be correct.
 * Data/Results:**
 * Person 1 || Scent || Vinegar ; Lavender || Mood for Vinegar:
 * Person 2 || Scents Being Tested || Cinnamon Candle; Pine || Mood for Pine:
 * Person 3 || Scents Being Tested || Lavender ; Vinegar || Mood for Vinegar:
 * Person 4 || Scents Being Tested || Pine ; Cinnamon || Mood for Vinegar
 * Conclusion:** I have come to the conclusion that, actually odors or scents do affect a person's mood.