Is it just me, or do others on this list experience numbers, formulae, etc., with more senses than just eyesight? For example, I find formulae that have polarity -- e.g., determinants -- to feel "sharp" and/or have a sharp taste, whereas formulae that are non-negative to have a rounded shape and/or have a smooth taste. Thus, a squared determinant loses its sharpness. By analogy, quadratic residues feel "smoother" than do non-residues. Perhaps these feelings come from formulae such as: abs(x)^2 = x^2 (abs(x) has a *sharp* edge at x=0, whereas abs(x)^2=x^2 does not.) Perhaps numbers & formulae could also come with *sound effects* ? --- Should math education and/or math museum exhibits attempt to capitalize on math synesthesia?
I find that studying math formulae gives me a headache. Does that count?
I have no synesthesia of any kind. I do have the ability to see some things "in my mind's eye", so I am not completely aphantastic, but with nowhere near the detail and vividness that my brother describes. I tend to rely on my auditory memory more than my visual memory, so my working memory is worse in noisy environments. On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 8:22 AM Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
Is it just me, or do others on this list experience numbers, formulae, etc., with more senses than just eyesight?
For example, I find formulae that have polarity -- e.g., determinants -- to feel "sharp" and/or have a sharp taste, whereas formulae that are non-negative to have a rounded shape and/or have a smooth taste. Thus, a squared determinant loses its sharpness.
By analogy, quadratic residues feel "smoother" than do non-residues.
Perhaps these feelings come from formulae such as:
abs(x)^2 = x^2
(abs(x) has a *sharp* edge at x=0, whereas abs(x)^2=x^2 does not.)
Perhaps numbers & formulae could also come with *sound effects* ?
--- Should math education and/or math museum exhibits attempt to capitalize on math synesthesia?
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-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://math.ucr.edu/~mike https://reperiendi.wordpress.com
This is a slight change of subject, but: recently I’ve been musing over similarities between descriptions of the phantom limb phenomenon for amputees and the way mathematicians imaginatively relate to mathematical objects. Has anyone explored this analogy before? Jim On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 1:52 PM Mike Stay <metaweta@gmail.com> wrote:
I have no synesthesia of any kind. I do have the ability to see some things "in my mind's eye", so I am not completely aphantastic, but with nowhere near the detail and vividness that my brother describes. I tend to rely on my auditory memory more than my visual memory, so my working memory is worse in noisy environments.
On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 8:22 AM Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
Is it just me, or do others on this list experience numbers, formulae, etc., with more senses than just eyesight?
For example, I find formulae that have polarity -- e.g., determinants -- to feel "sharp" and/or have a sharp taste, whereas formulae that are non-negative to have a rounded shape and/or have a smooth taste. Thus, a squared determinant loses its sharpness.
By analogy, quadratic residues feel "smoother" than do non-residues.
Perhaps these feelings come from formulae such as:
abs(x)^2 = x^2
(abs(x) has a *sharp* edge at x=0, whereas abs(x)^2=x^2 does not.)
Perhaps numbers & formulae could also come with *sound effects* ?
--- Should math education and/or math museum exhibits attempt to capitalize on math synesthesia?
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://math.ucr.edu/~mike https://reperiendi.wordpress.com
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participants (4)
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Dave Dyer -
Henry Baker -
James Propp -
Mike Stay