How smell affects taste

[Littleterpsmom]

My son submitted a science fair idea to blind taste test 5 people on their ability to detect the flavor of a jelly bean with their nose plugged and then the same flavor with their nose unplugged. He would do this with 5 flavors. He was asked to change project because he is not meausuring anything. I’m looking for ideas on how we can tweak the project and measure something, but he and I are both stuck. Any ideas?

[AW2000]

Based on the project, he would be measuring the accuracy of tasters that held their nose versus those who did not. This could be done by calculating the percentage of jelly beans tasted correctly by each person (the number of jelly accurately tasted divided by the total number of jelly beans). If the project has to measure more than that, the project could be testing what intensity of a taste is needed in order to taste something when noses are held and when not held. This could be done by taking something with a distinct taste such as lemon juice and diluting it with water various amounts. For example, starting at the lowest dilution testing 1:10 to 10:10(lemon juice: total solution) going up by a set amount, and recording at what dilution they were able to tell what they were tasting.

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