# What colours do you see numbers as? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111 "2004-03-24T11:11:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/21 "2004-03-26T05:41:44Z")
I’m not synesthetic, so I see all numbers, letters, etc. in the color they were written. Actually, now that I think about it, I tend to see some numbers in terms of their factors. 64 looks kind of nice and fat, but 52 or 701 look sort of weak, because they don’t come down to the nice, small prime factors like two and three, I guess. This happens especially when I care about the prime factorization, like if I’m reducing a fraction. Anyway, I’m curious. Is the color associated with the number, or the numeral? In other words, if you see silver for 6, is that triggered only by a “6” or also by a “VI” or a “six”? And what about multiple digits? Using **Thaumaturge** ’s list as an example, do you see 8093 as a dark-orange-ish, blackish, dark-greenish sky blue? Or do you see colors based on factors? What if you see a sign with 4 words on it, or hear a song with a quick series of 5 notes in a row? Can that trigger you to see the corresponding colors? It might be obvious already, but I’m jealous too. ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/22 "2004-03-26T06:09:46Z")
I see 8093 as a mix of 80, which would be very dark orange ( black and orange), and 93, which would be blue green. Compound numbers like that tend to keep their identities while partly blending together. Things for me just don’t blend beyond 2 numbers. VI changes colors depending upon whether I think of it as a number or 2 letters. So it goes from silvery grey to milky green and back again. As far as the color association being learned, I’d have to dissagree. If that was the case, I’d probably use the resistor color convention used on all fixed resistors in electronics since I took 2 years of electronics in high school and went on for 6 years of avionics in the air force. I can read the code just fine, but the numbers don’t evoke those colors. By sheer coincidence, I see 0 the same as the code, but the rest are different. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/23 "2004-03-26T06:10:36Z")
> [@Nvme77](#): > > How about number relationships- I mean I see them as _actual_ relationships. Like 9 and 8 are competitive towards each other, and 17 (the sum) is a male that they create that they both want to lay claim to. I do it with letters. My friend in High School and I decided that C was a bitch. She stole H away from S. Not only did she do it, she had the audacity to do it _twice_ in the same word. (Church). I can kinda understand where C is coming from. S and E just hog all the words and try to get all the attention. C is such a useful letter. She can make both the Ka and ssss sound. I can see where she would feel a little jelous. After all if I could make such a variety of sounds, I would be a little mad if some single-sounding letter came in and took all my glory. E doesn’t much care about all this. She is a little insecure. She knows she is the most common letter in the english language, so people must love her. She just feels so straight narrow and rigid. She hangs out with S because she admires S’s curves and shape. In fact all the common letters have a bit of a clique. The members of this clique are as follows. R S T L N E. They can be quite elitist at times. All the other letters sometimes resent them. I think H ran into C’s arms because he felt intimidated by S’s popularity. S will be ok, though. She recently found love with A. A is a bit of a loner, with not much care what people think of him. He has the self confidence to handle a woman of S’s stature. His compatability with S will also up his word count. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/24 "2004-03-26T06:11:56Z")
> [@Nvme77](#): > > How about number relationships- I mean I see them as _actual_ relationships. Like 9 and 8 are competitive towards each other, and 17 (the sum) is a male that they create that they both want to lay claim to. I’ve never seen numbers as having relationships with each other, or colors, but in my mind, they do have genders. Here’s my list: 0: none 1: male 2 : male 3: male 4: male 5: female 6 :male 7: female 8: male 9: female 10: female Some of the letters are male and female too, but most are just neutral. Another thing is that to me, the letter E and number 3 are the same thing, if that makes any sense. The letter F and 4 are the same too. As a child, I never understood why I couldn’t use them interchangably. I think that might have more to do with the shapes of the letters and numbers being similar, although 0 and O and 5 and S have similar shapes, and I don’t think of them being related at all. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/25 "2004-03-26T06:30:16Z")
Months have genders in my world. January = girl February = boy March = boy April = girl May = girl June = girl July = boy August = boy September = girl October = boy November = girl December = boy I don’t know why, but it just seems right. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/26 "2004-03-26T06:31:42Z")
Ok, is there _anyone_ else who sees all numbers and all letters as just plain old numbers and letters, and just plain black? Or am I the only odd one out of this pretty game? It never even _occurred_ to me that numbers and letters should be colored! ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/27 "2004-03-26T06:33:39Z")
And now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure the letter K is a total asshat. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/28 "2004-03-26T06:46:11Z")
Shayna, Numbers and letters are just plain black for me too, so you’re not alone. FWIW, I think my number/gender association is based on watching shows like Sesame Street (which often showed anthropomorphic letters and numbers interacting with each other) at the same time that i learned the numbers themselves. I don’t believe that I have anything similar to synaesthesia. ---
**Author:** ![Tokyo\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tokyo\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tokyo_Mann)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/29 "2004-03-26T07:13:17Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Ok, is there _anyone_ else who sees all numbers and all letters as just plain old numbers and letters, and just plain black? Or am I the only odd one out of this pretty game? It never even _occurred_ to me that numbers and letters should be colored! Don’t feel bad. I have zero ability to see anything in my mind’s eye, numbers letters, faces or memories. My sister also is the same. I thought I was weird until I read about others also lacking the ability. However, I can dream of things, so the information is there, just not the ability to recall it consciously. If you ask me what a “4” looks like, then I can draw it, I just can’t “see” it. I think it’s cool that you can see numbers and letters, even in black and white. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/30 "2004-03-26T07:55:26Z")
I was reading an article (may have been the aforementioned _Scientific American_, but I’m not sure) on synesthesia. They presented a rather interesting experiment. Say the subject claims to see the number 6 as red. The subject was presented with a sheet of paper with a jumble of numbers and letters on it, with a small triangle of 6s somewhere in it. The subject was able to point out the triangle almost immediately. Synesthesia is something I’m fascinated by. I was listening to [the Splendid Table](http://www.splendidtable.org) and they had a piece on someone whose sense of taste and touch were linked. Apparently, he had an expert on synesthesia over for dinner, and he apologized because the chicken was “too round”, and he wanted it to be “spikier”. That being said, I don’t associate numbers or letters with any given color. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/31 "2004-03-26T15:23:22Z")
Numbers, letters, shoot this entire thread is in black & white!!! ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colours-do-you-see-numbers-as/236111/32 "2004-03-26T17:51:23Z")
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