Solved cryptogram
Pure sulfur has almost no smell. The stench people blame on it comes from its compounds.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
The yellow crystals themselves are nearly odorless. What people are actually smelling is hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg gas, or the organic sulfur compounds in onions and skunk spray. Human noses are extraordinarily sensitive to that family of molecules, which is why a trace of one is added to natural gas so that a leak announces itself.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 71 letters over 17 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length71 letters, 17 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 68 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 76 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 75 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 75 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters