Glossary
Vapor Pressure — Glossary
How readily a compound escapes into the air — the physical property that decides what you can smell.
Vapor pressure is a molecule’s tendency to evaporate. High vapor pressure compounds become airborne easily — those are the strong smells. Low vapor pressure compounds stay put — they contribute less to what you detect.
Heat raises vapor pressure (why warm rooms smell more); binding to surfaces lowers it (why adsorbents trap odor). It is the physics underneath every odor.