What comes to your mind when we hear the word “rain” , water ? wet roads ? chai(tea) ,pakoda (fritters) no … wait let me make that easy for you . try closing your eyes , feel the word rain what comes to your mind now ??
The very first thing that comes to our mind , whenever we close our eyes and say or feel the word rain is its smell , the fragrance that earth releases when the rain drop meets its surface ..
We often get carried away feeling nostalgic about rain. The moments we’ve spent in rain whether its be the funny one or the romantic one, everyone has there own story about it . Lets not go down that way …
One thing that I really love about rain is its smell , i am sure you too do .. no doubt that the smell of earth after rain is so good that you cant just ignore it. Its always fresh and soothing, but have you ever thought what causes that smell because rain is just water and water doesn’t smell right?
So how does that work?
Did you know that what we think of the smell of the rain is actually the smell of an oil released from the earth?
This scent has its own name , Patrichor.
Two reasons are here behind this smell,
The first thing is:
some plants produces oil when they are dry and when it rains these oils are released into the air which causes that smell.
The second thing is:
The reaction that takes place when the chemicals produced by the bacteria from the soil are released into the atmosphere. These compound combines together to make that awesome patrichor smell when the rain hits the ground.
So, the next time you smell the fresh rain you can say — Aaahh!! the smell of chemistry !
The smell of rain is the smell of Chemistry!