CoachA sense is a way the body finds out about the world. Each sense works through a sense organ, a part of the body built for that job:
- sight — the eyes see light, colors and shapes;
- hearing — the ears hear sounds;
- smell — the nose smells odors;
- taste — the tongue tastes food;
- touch — the skin, all over the body, feels rough and smooth, warm and cold.
Examples
Example 5.2 (Breakfast, sense by sense)
One bowl of hot chocolate uses all five: the eyes see the steam, the nose smells the cocoa, the skin of the hands feels the warm bowl, the ears hear the spoon clink, and the tongue — the best part — tastes it.
Example 5.5 (Naming things in the dark)
A friend puts a familiar object in your hands while your eyes are closed: a key, a sponge, a spoon. You name it almost at once. The skin sent its message — cold, hard, jagged — and the brain answered: “a key”. Senses collect; the brain understands.
Example 5.9 (The concert next door)
After very loud music, ears sometimes whistle for a while. That whistling is the ear saying “too much!”. People who work with loud machines wear ear covers for exactly this reason — their ears must last them a lifetime.