How many senses do we have?
Although we are taught in school that we have five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing), the real number is much higher. Among others, we also have the following senses:
Kinesthesia (body orientation)
Balance
Heat/Cold
Mechanical Pressure (i.e., how much force is being exerted on your body by an object)
Air/Water Pressure
Time
Spacial orientation
Direction
Gravity/Weight
Movement
Pain
And so on. If it is even possible to put a number on it, how many senses do we have?
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You can't really put a number on it. There are so many edge cases that what counts as "a sense" is really a matter of opinion. For example: do you count proprioception (feedback about the locations of your body parts) as a sense, or is it not a sense because it doesn't provide information about your environment? Your body has distinct receptors for transient pressure, continuing pressure, and vibration: is that one sense or three? Are taste and smell distinct senses, or different aspects of the same sense? Some people are able to detect the polarization of light in addition to its color and intensity -- do you count that as a sense, as part of vision, or do you discount it because not everyone can do it?
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