# How many different smells can we distinguish?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-different-smells-can-we-distinguish/450511>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 25, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-different-smells-can-we-distinguish/450511 "2008-05-25T00:30:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-different-smells-can-we-distinguish/450511/1 "2008-05-25T00:30:37Z")

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By “we” I mean humans, on average.

Also, how many dimensions would a map of the human smell range need?