Numbers are beautiful

In my first post I described how at school I had imagined that numbers were 'dry' and 'pointless' entities but I have only recently become aware that it's not how I really experience them at all. I have a type of sensory perception called synaesthesia (see the wikipedia entry for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia) and an aspect of this is perceiving numbers as having personalities and colours. In my mind numbers are quite delicious and fun:

• 2 is blue, cuddly, solid, stable, loving and female, 
• 3 is a vibrant orange/yellow, very physical and gregarious and male 
• 4 is a deep red/maroon, male and very rigid and conservative 
• 5 is a similar colour to 3 and also very gregarious but in chatty, hyperactive way rather than in the physical way that 3 is. It is also androgynous. 
• 6 is similar to 2 and is also blue and female, very kind and sensible but not cuddly and more aloof 
• 7 green and male and an oddball - a thinker - part scientist and part magician  
• 8 is male and shares similar qualities to 4, and is the father of 4 (its also maroon) but is much more aggressive and ambitious with the attributes of a businessman
• 9 is androgynous and a very soft pale brown. It is peace-loving and very benign and spiritual 

If I'd shared the above with Pythagorus 2000 years ago or more, I might not have been viewed as particularly unusual. Pythagorus believed that numbers represented the very essence of spiritual truths and some claim that he was the originator of numerology. I'm not sure I have a view on numerology and it can hardly be described as 'maths' in today's terms, but reading at the descriptions above, I can see certain patterns. 'Sensible, conservative' numbers are even and all 'gregarious' or 'more unusual numbers' are odd. 4 and 8 had similar 'personalities' and 4 is a factor of 8. Four is quite literally square as a square has four corners. Five can be represented as a star shape with five points.   

I share my synaesthesia with another mathematician, Daniel Tammet (although as an autistic savant he is in another league to me when it comes to calculating). Daniel uses his synaesthesia to do complex mathematical calculations and in this TED talk he describes how imagination and aesthetic judgements guide and shape the process of learning - fascinating!