About this ebook
Mathematics has a smell. This is not a metaphor — not for Vera Szabo, whose rare form of lexical-gustatory synesthesia extends to numerical symbols, causing each equation to produce a distinct olfactory sensation. Prime numbers smell of burnt wood. Differential equations smell of salt. Infinity smells of nothing, which is, she argues, the most terrifying smell of all. This book is a synesthetic memoir of a mathematical career conducted through the nose — a journey through the fragrant landscape of pure abstraction, where the Riemann Hypothesis smells of old copper and Gödel's incompleteness theorems smell of wet earth after rain.
Mathematics has a smell. This is not a metaphor — not for Vera Szabo, whose rare form of lexical-gustatory synesthesia extends to numerical symbols, causing each equation to produce a distinct olfactory sensation. Prime numbers smell of burnt wood. Differential equations smell of salt. Infinity s...
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About the author
Vera Szabo is a Hungarian mathematician who held a position at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest until her synesthetic condition — which causes her to experience numbers as smells — made it impossible to work in shared offices. She now lives alone in a village in the Tokaj wine region, surrounded by vineyards whose seasonal scents she claims "interfere with her ability to think about zero."
Vera Szabo is a Hungarian mathematician who held a position at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest until her synesthetic condition — which causes her to experience numbers as smells — made it impossible to work in shared offices. She now lives alone in a village in the Tokaj win...
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