Julia Altshuler wrote:
> J wrote:
>
>> 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.

....and black.

> But when I play around with combining and recombining salt, white
> vinegar, sugar and something bitter (can't think of anything that's
> edible and pure bitter), I don't get thousands and thousands of
> perceptively different tastes. I don't get something that's
> recognizeably pear or pineapple.

And that would be because you don't have any of the elements that
provide the scent of pineapple.

> I just get salty, sweet, tart and
> bitter in different strengths and amounts. It's not like color really
> at all. I realize you were only trying to explain by analogy, but this
> one isn't working for me.

It actually is very much like color as in printing. It's additive, where
one color is added to another. Same for the perception of taste, it's
all the tastes *and* the smells combined.

The problem with your notion is that it doesn't factor in smell. Put a
few drops of any kind of wine on your tongue and hold your nose so you
can't smell it. The likelihood is that you can't tell if it's red or
white. Very, very few people can do that.

Pastorio