swan_tower: (albino owl)
swan_tower ([personal profile] swan_tower) wrote2010-10-18 01:09 pm

Hey, chemists!

How would you describe the smell of acid? Does it have a smell? (Any kind of acid will do; I'm looking for commonalities here.)

[identity profile] mrissa.livejournal.com 2010-10-18 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Sharp, is the word I would use.

Think of which cooking things are canonically acidic. Tomato, citrus, vinegar. If you have to use a word other than "acidic" for the smell of acid, I'd go with "sharp."

[identity profile] swan-tower.livejournal.com 2010-10-18 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't want to say "acidic" right from the start, because it takes the pov character a moment to figure out what he's smelling (which is, in fact, an acid). But yeah, that was mostly what I was thinking.