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[โ€“] 19 points 1 year ago (6 children)
  • [โ€“] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    Why do they call them smelling salts?

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  • Some salts smell. Table salt (what's pictured in the meme) doesn't have a detectable smell in solid form, not enough vaporizes to notice. Smelling salts are ammonium carbonate, not sodium chloride like table salt, and they do smell strongly. "Salt" can refer to either table salt or to any ionic compound whatsoever. The latter is chemistry jargon, but then gets used in colloquial terms like "smelling salts" or "salty licorice" neither of which have table salt but both of which have other ionic compounds.

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