Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Number-color synaesthesia?

I definitely 'get' the idea of the number colors only working for numbers that are 'alive'. I was sort of thinking along these lines; when a child is young they don't work with large numbers as much as say an adult mathematician; the numbers haven't had a chance to really live yet for that child. That in itself is extremely exciting.

Yes, super interesting...

As far as I know DD has no color-number-letter synaesthesia and neither do I not DH. But it sounds so interesting that I wish I had it ....

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but one of the lads picked up a library book yesterday that I thought might interest some of the people who originally took part in this discussion. It's called "Le piano des couleurs," by Massin, published by Gallimard Jeunesse (2004); it's got fantastic pictures by Laure, and a quite serious discussion (for a child's picture book) of this whole phenomenon.

The afterword amused me, invoking Mersenne, Champollion, Balzac, ETA Hoffmann, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Boris Vian, Huysmans, Théophile Gautier, George Sand, Proust (and a dozen others)...in a 24-page kids' book...gotta love the French!

peace
minnie