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Perfume - The Science of Smell

Perfume - The Science of Smell
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.71

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    balsam, foul-smelling, solvent, sperm, intensity, dissolve, unpleasant, clove, man-made, limestone, carving, concentration, solution, directly, identify, commercial

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Perfume - The Science of Smell
By Cindy Grigg 		  
1     Caption: This limestone carving found in an Egyptian tomb shows the making of lily perfume in the 4th century B.C.
 
2     A perfume is any substance that is used as a pleasant fragrance. Many cosmetics contain perfumes. Low priced perfumes called odorants are added to many products including paper, plastics, and rubber products. These help to hide unpleasant odors or to make the products more attractive to customers. Plastic trash bags, for example, may have odorants added to them to hide trash odors.
 
3     Perfumes are solutions. A solution is a mixture that appears to be a single substance, but it is made up of particles of two or more substances evenly distributed among each other.
 
4     Solutions are often described as homogeneous mixtures because they have the same appearance and properties throughout the mixture. A solution is made up of a solute dissolved in a solvent. The solute is the substance that is dissolved, and the solvent is the substance in which the solute is dissolved.
 
5     A solute is soluble, or able to dissolve, in the solvent. Solutions do not settle, cannot be filtered, and do not scatter light. Concentration is a measure of the amount of solute dissolved in a solvent. As the concentration of perfume oils increases, so does the intensity of the scent created. The scent will last longer, too.

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