Julia Altshuler > wrote:
> Dave Smith wrote:
> > We only detect 5 tastes; salt, sour, sweet. bitter and umami.

> I've heard that too and have probably repeated it on occasion, but now
> I'm wondering. If there are only 5 basic tastes, then how do I know the
> difference between a pear and a pineapple? They're both sweet and tart,

Think of the computer monitor you are looking at right now. It has
only three colors -- red, green, and blue. Yet by combining these
three colors in different combinations, at different levels, you get
thousands and thousands of perceptibly different colors.

Alternatively, look at all the different colors that a color printer
can generate using only cyan, magenta, and yellow.

J