Page 45 - (DK) How to be a GENIUS?

Smell The chemical factor
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Try this test and find You will need: Find out if saliva You will need:
out how good your ǩ %OLQGIROG helps you when ǩ 3DSHU WRZHO
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sense of smell is. it comes to
three items with strong such as cookies, cakes,
smells such as a banana, tasting food. or crackers
coffee grounds, flowers, ǩ 7ZR IULHQGV
or soap
ǩ $ IULHQG

Step 1 Our sense of smell is
For each item, put two much more sensitive than
samples of it in two our sense of taste—around
different bowls. Mix 10,000 times more
the bowls around. sensitive. It alerts us
to danger by detecting
poisonous odors and we
can even identify whether
Step 2
food is ripe or rotten by
y
p
%OLQGIROG \RXU IULHQG
smell alone.
and ask him or her to
identify which two items
smell the same. How
good was your friend’s
sense of smell?

Step 1 Step 2
Pat the tongue of one of Ask the two subjects to
Step 3
your volunteers dry with taste the dry food and then
Ask the second person to
the paper towel so that record their responses as
identify the flavors. This
no part of the tongue’s thow much flavor they
h fl
th
h
t
o
volunteer should not be
top side has saliva on it. can taste.
blindfolded. Record his
The second person can
or her answers, too.
taste the food as normal.
Step 4
Compare the differences Chemicals from food
between the two can reach your taste buds
experiments. Did the We are used to only if they have been
blindfolded person make seeing foods in dissolved in saliva.
any mistakes or take longer certain colors, and
in identifying the flavors? this helps identify
their flavors.

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A child has around d
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wh
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wh
ds
ds
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1 10,000 taste buds, while e
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a n a d u l t m a y h a ve
an adult may have ve
only 5,000..
o n l y 5 , 0 0 0
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