Seeing numbers as having characteristics

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I remember watching a documentary on David Tammet, who said he perceives many individual numbers in very distinct ways. I've never experienced anything as clear cut as his perception, but I remember when I was young I would assign numbers gender. Even numbers were girls, odd numbers were boys. I would go through my mother's checkbook and make up stories about the different check numbers.

Did/does anyone else do anything similar?

My son feels that all numbers have personalities and are different colours as well. He can work out the answer to equations by looking at the colours and just knowing what colour the answer will be. He gets into so much trouble at school for not showing his working out

Not exactly, although I do see a lot of numbers as being lucky and unlucky.

Lucky - The majority of even numbers

Unlucky - Odd numbers, any multiple of 6

Not really, although my mathematical thought processes do tend to bewilder some people. For example, when calculating a tip at 15%, I'll first do 10%, then take half that number, then add it to the first. Or for things like 16%, do the above, then add a single fraction. And when adding large numbers, I go from left to right, getting the large part out of the way then making corrections as needed for smaller digits that carry.

I was never really good at math or arithmetic, so I was never really a "number person", per se. However, I do see numbers as being either male or female, as you say. In addition to that, at various times in my life I´ve been interested in spirituality; for instance, maybe I studied a particular religion of a particular ancient culture. Some of these cultures and religions assigned spiritual qualities to various numbers- or, a number may hold a certain particular magical, or powerful quality- so I also just incorporated all those spiritual aspects and meanings to numbers too. Don´t know if that counts, as those things were based on things I read, but they´re now quite ingrained in me.

Apparently it's called "ordinal linguistic personification". I don't have it, but the last time we discussed it I posted this cartoon by Charles M. Schulz which illustrates it perfectly:

I do this but with letters, not numbers.

I've never done that, though it is interesting. I do find numbers fascinating, but the mathematical value more so than the human expression of it.

I do want to read more about zero, infinity, and pi. I think I'll have to wait a few more years on that one because I got some other interests that trump it. Outside of that, I love working in different base systems, and I like creating my own numbers for them. When I tutor though, I generally use letters and symbols since I type out my pages. Either way, I would seriously enjoy working with concepts like zero, infinity, and ratios like pi in different base systems, and before I do, I think I will create my own numbers in FontCreator for those purposes. It makes it a lot easier to switch your mind. Trying to calculate in a 5 base system using digits we use in our ten base (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) is like trying to sing the National Anthem while listening to the Grand Ole Flag song.

Pythagoras: he also saw odd numbers as male and even numbers as female.

Are you by any chance related to him?


I've also seen numbers as having emotional and "facial" characteristics since I was little (although I'd never write this down in my Math book!).

I'm not brilliantly fantastic at Maths, just competent and above average (highly advanced calculus really is beyond me though).


I can't help but wonder about Mr Pythagoras though.
He ate a strict diet of beans and would drown anyone who tried to contradict him.
He did seem a bit obsessive and eccentric from the descriptions I've read.
Well...
he was a Math teacher...

I do this as well, with both numbers and letters. They all have colors and characteristics. I've heard it called "synesthesia." There is a lot of information online.

PhoenixWolf: That's EXACTLY how I do my math. I never realized it was considered bewildering.

I think the main difference is that most people are not able to keep track of that many figures in their heads at once. Or they try to do it in their heads the same way they're taught to do it on paper. Which is, to say, very ugly and overly complex. The easiest manner is to turn it into a series of simple problems using larger but manageable numbers. Like I always know what something * 5 is by either halving it and adding a zero (if even) or adding a zero then halving that. Multiply by 2 is also easy, as is x4 since it's just x2 twice (or it's x5 minus one unit). The hardest is x3 because you have to do x2 then add x1.

Zero has no identifiable color or texture or temperature....
One is black, smooth and shiny and is room temperature....
Two is light yellow, soft and fuzzy, and feels warm...
Three is red, hard and a little shiny like plastic...and feels hot.
Four is light blue, soft and fuzzy, and feels cool.
Five is bright green, hard and shiny...and feels hot..
Six is dark grey, very small...not shiny or dull really..reminds me of graphite...and it feels cool.
Seven is blood red and large, and even though it is hard, the surface looks sort of like liquid and it's warm....it reminds me of blood....
Eight is pale green, somewhat large, transparent, soft and fluffy....it feels like a cool breeze.
Nine is purple, large, and very shiny...but it's liquid....like mercury....and cold.

The odd composite numbers have varying temperatures, but they usually feel cold, unless they are divisible by 5....even composite numbers are soft and fuzzy or fluffy and they don't have clearly defined edges or borders room temperature or cool...The colors of composite numbers depend on the intensity of the digits they are made up of...like 3226 is sort of orange, and feels a little bit cool...the six is not a very intense digit....so it's color gets lost behind the intensity of the bright red three and the yellow two's.....the number 415 is teal and is sort of room temperature.....

Prime numbers are always hard, reflective and hot or warm....I get a weird feeling in my stomach when I recognise that a number is prime.....I don't care much for primes....maybe it's the randomness I don't like...or maybe it's just that I can't factor them and know about what they are made up of....

Anyway....I'm pretty good at math because I experience numbers differently. I need to don't use a calculator for multiplication, division, addition or subtraction, percentages and whatnot....but if the numbers are composed of many digits it takes me longer so sometimes a calculator can be helpful. I can do a lot of math in my head that most people can't....but I am by no means a mathematical savant.

I also have a talent for remembering long sequences of numbers. I always remember birthdays, phone numbers, zip codes, addresses....I know all my credit card numbers, my drivers licence number....my family's and my fiance's social security numbers (and a few of his credit card numbers....my driver's licence number...his driver's licence number...the VIN number of every car I've ever owned and he's every owned....and many of the VIN numbers of the cars I worked on when I was a mechanic....I know the raw material numbers of every raw material I've ever worked with as a formulation chemist....and the lot numbers of those raw materials....I can recognize a car I've seen before on a highway because of the licence plate number....

There are lots of numbers in my head...

I have often seen numbers as colours and textures too and was always fascinated by them as a child. I particularly loved car numberplates and could (and still can) remember all the numberplates of the family cars we had when I was at home. I only have to see a numberplate once to remember it even today and it often evokes a colour and texture.

I used my fourth grade teacher's license plate number for a password for years. I saw it once, and it had a particularly interesting combination. 837525, with no spaces.

I never knew that about the x5. Thanks for that tip.

The one a little kid taught me recently is the 9 times table with your fingers. I know there's a trick for beyond 10 digits, but I forget what it was because I will in shock about how easy it was for the ones up to ten. But, either way, you hold your ten fingers in front of you, and then say you want 9 times two, so you count two from left to right of the fingers, and drop that finger down, and the remaining digits would be your answer. I'll try to draw it out (and I'm sure you've heard of this, but in case other people haven't)

I I I I I I I I I I

9 times two

I x I I I I I I I I (18)

9 times 8

I I I I I I I x I I (72)

Not in the same way, but I do feel that even numbers are somehow 'incomplete' and, as such, slightly annoying, while odd numbers are complete.

If I'm adding up numbers written in front of me, I also count in a way that I've only ever heard one other person (on WP) say they do, which is by counting physically around the written number, thus:

1 - one, halfway up the stem.
2 - one on the top curve, one on the bottom line.
3 - on each of the three 'points' on the left.
4 - on each of the four points.
5 - three times along the top line, one on the top of the curve, one on the bottom of the curve.
6 - three around the top of the circle, three around the bottom.
7 - three along the top line, four down the stem.
8 - four around the top circle, four around the bottom circle.
9 - three around the top of the circle, three around the bottom, and three down the stem.