A Fruity Odour...

That's what I'm meant to say when describing an esterification.
Two weeks ago, I did an experiment on esterification. We were basically given a bunch of alcohols and carboxylic acids to play with [with proper guidance of course] and then told to identify the scents.

At that time, I was still suffering the beginning of the effects of that horrible bug going around Perth. And here I am, being told to smell six different solutions with my defunctional nose.

This event probably goes right up there next to the time at Saints Trek when I, the Malaysian, was teamed up with my Japanese Britishman partner and told to teach a bunch of Grade 7s the history of South Africa's colonialisation.

You could've asked me to tell you why the sky was blue and I'd have winged it just about as much.


The first one I sniffed smelt like nail polish remover. That was somehow unanimous throughout the class, so I put that down. The second one smelt like bananas. Oh wow, the overpowering smell of bananas. Bananas are easily the worst smelling fruit that God may have decided to plant on this earth. That was also probably what knocked out my sense of smell for the rest of the experiment.
After that, I could barely smell anything, save the overpowering 4th mixture which cleared out my nose in a flash. Although I still couldn't actually smell anything.
So I cleverly went up to Zaheed, Erik and Brendan, and collaborated my results with theirs. Yen told me that the overpowering 4th mixture was vinegar, and Zaheed told me the 3rd mixture which the banana smell managed to conquer was probably a citrus fruit since he thought it smelt like an orange. Then Zaheed decided that the 5th mixture smelt like deepheat.

Deepheat.

I'm not entirely sure how he manages to remember the smell of the deepheat so clearly, but okay, considering I had a blocked nose and I didn't really have a platform on which to argue with him, I listened to him and put that down into my results. The 6th mixture didn't actually have any scent, and when I tried to sniff it, but couldn't smell anything, I really thought that my nose had finally given in and I'd lost my sense of smell.
I also have to say thank you to Erik right now for giving us the equations since I didn't know how to write them down at the time. XD

I just spent the entire evening having to practice my organic chemistry for a test tomorrow. I think I know my stuff...I just hope I realy do know it, and it's not just floating around in my head. =/

Two colourless solutions mix and a fruity odour emerges...


Mishy <3