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I want to know what happens to that breath. To help you answer this question, consider in your mind these subquestions:

  • Is there a necessary principle at work, by which you know that it vanishes/solves into the air after a set amount of time or distance?
  • Is it attached to the smoke, and does it travel with it?
  • Does it get detached from it?

Please explain in clear, essential concise language suitable for a non-chemist and a humanities person (logic, philosophy, theology, etc.).

Explanation: I am trying to help someone in need overcome a traumatic experience that has had demanding negative effects, after the person had already suffered much, and this is the most direct way I have at the moment. Your answer might just be crucial to the person's recovery.

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    $\begingroup$ Please make clear and not overly broad questions suitable for Chemistry SE... $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Nov 3, 2019 at 22:59
  • $\begingroup$ Thist is a kind of empirical. An architect and regulators might have special formula. If you mean how far you must be from a smoker it can be from very close in a open place in windy day or even doesn't matter in a small and close room. $\endgroup$
    – Alchimista
    Commented Nov 4, 2019 at 8:32
  • $\begingroup$ Hi Alchemista. I've changed the question, as was demanded by some. I hope it is sufficiently clear and clearer. If possible, please include and consider different yet essential situations/principles (that are applicable to many situations). $\endgroup$
    – Usor
    Commented Nov 4, 2019 at 13:01
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    $\begingroup$ No, it doesn't make sense - that's the problem - it's an X & Y problem - question stems from false premises and fundamental misunderstanding. Breath is just air, it doesn't "detach" there's no "threshold" in mixing of gases, no specific moment when something stops being smoke. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Nov 4, 2019 at 17:13
  • $\begingroup$ What false premisses? They are QUESTIONS. $\endgroup$
    – Usor
    Commented Nov 11, 2019 at 0:16

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You can never see single molecules with your naked eyes. If you can see the smoke, it must be something larger (much larger) than molecules and the wavelength of light. When organic materials, like tobacco, burn incompletely they generate soot which is just carbon particles. These carbon particles scatter white light and appear as bluish-grey material when someone exhales smoke. What others (poor passive smokers and the smoker) smell are literally thousands organic molecules which the human nose can sense and many of them are cancer causing chemicals including tar, benzopyrenes, and radioactive junk among others. Tobacco plant requires lot of phosphorous fertilizers those fertilizers have traces of unwanted radioactive metals. In short it is not cool to smoke and I have seen lungs of smokers which have turned black from soot in museums.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you. What about other things, such as breath? How and how far does exhaled breath travel, if accompanied by exhaled cigarette smoke? Is there also maybe a point at which it---for all I know---detaches or ceases to exist? $\endgroup$
    – Usor
    Commented Nov 3, 2019 at 22:35
  • $\begingroup$ One cannot see breath. However one can the smoker in a room which means the molecules (after burning tobacco) diffuse quite fast in the room. $\endgroup$
    – ACR
    Commented Nov 3, 2019 at 22:41
  • $\begingroup$ I did not fully understand that last phrase in your comment starting with "However one can the smoker . . . ." $\endgroup$
    – Usor
    Commented Nov 3, 2019 at 22:55
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, I meant "one can smell the presence of a smoker"... $\endgroup$
    – ACR
    Commented Nov 3, 2019 at 22:57

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