How do you tell a blind Man what the colour pink is?

[England my lionheart]

I have just cleared out my Attic and going though some old papers and books and i came accross my old Uni books,nothing like nostalgia to cheers you up,anyway i lightened on this question.

How do you tell or describe what the colour Pink is to a Man blind from birth

 

[Madhuri]

You don't?

 

[England my lionheart]

What if he asks

 

[Revoltingest]

You use a description which doesn't involve the sense he lacks.
A range of light wavelengths would convey the information.
Is it possible to elicit the feeling which it gives the sighted?
I don't know how.

 

[lunakilo]

I guess you will have to refer to his other senses in order to explain it to him.

You can practice on me, I was born without a sense of smell.
Explain to me what a rose smells like.

 

[England my lionheart]

Really theres no right or wrong answer

 

[Revoltingest]

You can practice on me, I was born without a sense of smell.
Explain to me what a rose smells like.

It's not as tall as a magnolia smells.
It smells thornier than a daffodil.
And it smells nothing like bacon tastes.
Now you know!

 

[England my lionheart]

I guess you will have to refer to his other senses in order to explain it to him.

So like touch,warm cold

You can practice on me, I was born without a sense of smell.
Explain to me what a rose smells like.

So this probably affects your sense of taste,i think you could refer to the colour of the Rose to get an idea of how it smells,generally Flowers smell nice.

 

[lunakilo]

It's not as tall as a magnolia smells.
It smells thornier than a daffodil.
And it smells nothing like bacon tastes.
Now you know!

I can use the "it smells nothing like bacon tastes.", but the other two do not help.

That is like saying that pink is lighter than red. If you are blind and don't know what red is then it makes no sense.

 

[Revoltingest]

I can use the "it smells nothing like bacon tastes.", but the other two do not help.

That is like saying that pink is lighter than red. If you are blind and don't know what red is then it makes no sense.

Actually, "pink is lighter than red" is pretty good.....better than my mirthful attempt above.
"Lighter" would be analogous to volume or intensity.

 

[lunakilo]

So this probably affects your sense of taste,

That is usually peoples first reaction
And you ar both right and wrong at the same time.

If you by taste mean the sensory input you recieve when you eat, then yes.
Since you use all your senses when you eat, and the sensory input from the sense of smell is missing what I can sense and what you can sense is different.

BUT if you are talking about the SENSE of taste the no, smell and taste are two seperate senses.

The reason why people often get confised I think, is beause they are often used at the same time.

i think you could refer to the colour of the Rose to get an idea of how it smells,generally Flowers smell nice.

So are there nice colors and bad colors?

 

[Madhuri]

What if he asks

Tell him not to ask silly questions

 

[lunakilo]

Actually, "pink is lighter than red" is pretty good.....better than my mirthful attempt above.
"Lighter" would be analogous to volume or intensity.

So a Rose explained as taste:

1) it is not bacon (check)

But bacon is nice and roses are nice so why isn't a rose bacon?

 

[Madhuri]

But in order to have any understanding of what a rose smells like, would you not need to have an idea of what smelling is like?

Same with sight. How can you make a blind person understand what something looks like if they cannot imagine sight?

 

[lunakilo]

But in order to have any understanding of what a rose smells like, would you not need to have an idea of what smelling is like?

Same with sight. How can you make a blind person understand what something looks like if they cannot imagine sight?

I would probably try and use sound as an analogy.

You can make any color by mixing red, green and blue.

So assume that red, green and blue are each represented by a musical note.
If a color has no red in it the red-note is quiet.
If a color has no green in it the green-note is quiet.
and so on.
So black would be all quiet.
White would be max. vol. on all notes.

Pink: (r,g,b) ~ (255,204,204) , would be max. vol on the red-note and high vol og the green and blue notes.

You could represent any color like that.

You would also have to explain about the feelings/attributes which goes with each color.
Fx. pink is for little girls.

 

[Revoltingest]

So a Rose explained as taste:
1) it is not bacon (check)
But bacon is nice and roses are nice so why isn't a rose bacon?

Imagine the taste difference between bacon & a not fuly ripe watermelon.
That is suggestive of the 'smell' difference between bacon & a rose.

It reminds me of a description of "failure" by our Canadian friend, Wirey.
Failure tastes like cheese, but without the cheese.

 

[Rakhel]

Red is very hot , blue is very cold, green is warm.
Pink is not as hot as red but warmer than green.

 

[lunakilo]

Imagine the taste difference between bacon & a not fuly ripe watermelon.
That is suggestive of the 'smell' difference between bacon & a rose.

Hmm bacon tastes a lot, a not fuly ripe watermelon doesn't taste of very much.
But I don't think I would think of the taste of a not fuly ripe watermelon as nice
Isn't the smell of a rose supposed to be nice?

It reminds me of a description of "failure" by our Canadian friend, Wirey.
Failure tastes like cheese, but without the cheese.

What, do you feel like a failure in explainin smell?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

You use a description which doesn't involve the sense he lacks.
A range of light wavelengths would convey the information.
Is it possible to elicit the feeling which it gives the sighted?
I don't know how.

If I had to do it, I'd probably reflect on how I feel when I look at a rose, and then find a piece of music that elicits something close to the same feeling.

It's going to be horribly subjective, but the feeling that a rose gives a sighted person is going to be horribly subjective anyhow.

 

[lunakilo]

Red is very hot , blue is very cold, green is warm.
Pink is not as hot as red but warmer than green.

I have heard that explenation before, but I have allways thought it was to one-dimentional.

And where is purple, or magenta, grey, khaki, ... on that scale?