Which basic concepts can't be explained using words?

Actually, “left” and “right” can be explained with language … and biology. Left is the side of the human body on which the heart is primarily located, and right is the side of the body generally associated with the liver.

However, there certainly are concepts, ideas and actual things that cannot be adequately explained in words: colors and music are the first two that pop into my mind.

If someone never had an orange, can you adequately describe eating an orange to them?

I can’t tell you.

i’m thinking sensations such as warm and cold.

Explain to a blind person what a cloud looks like.

That feeling coursing through your veins when you hold your newborn in your arms for the very first time.

a circle

Squaring time.

This is a tricky question. I keep thinking if things I believe people have a hard time empathizing with unless they experience it, but that is not what this Q is asking.

We can describe with words almost anything I think. It’s the person’s frame of reference and own experiences which determines whether they can understand.

@CWOTUS Actually, a smallish percentage of people have their heart on the right. Often found in mirror image twins, but also occurs without a twin.

Danger. Kids have a hard time understanding the importance of safety from words only. getting hurt is what finally makes things real for them.

11 dimensional space.

Honestly, I don’t think there are any. Babies learn from their parents and their parents use a combination of words and gestures until they get the baby to associate a word with a thing. It’s dependent upon the knowledge base of the people communicating.

If someone had eaten grapefruit, I would say “An orange is like a smaller grapefruit, with the tart but without any bitter. Definitely sweeter.”

“If your forehead makes it’s own sweat [moisture] you are warm. The furnace is warm.”
“If you get goose pimples and shiver (things I can describe), you’re cold. The fridge is cold.”

“You know how cotton-balls feel? Clouds are like bags full of cotton-balls dumped across the sky. If they look angry, we may have rain, or worse. If they look happy they are just light fluffy masses slowly moving against the sky.”

“Take your orange and hold it against a piece of paper with the tips of your fingers. In the other hand take a stick and go around the orange against the paper. The outline on the paper is a circle. The orange is a ball, sphere, orb etc. The outline is a circle.
Touch your forefinger to your thumb lightly. The space left is a crude circle used to mean okay or good.”

Most kids learn ”bad* early on. We have effectively equate bad with danger. Fine line. You don’t know if you’re repressing or enabling your kid until it’s too late.

Describing people who have that certain je ne sais quoi. According to Dr J, I happen to be one of them.

Obviously math, because I have never been able to conceive of it. You can talk all you want about math, but I’ll never be able to “get it.”

@Kardamom Nothing? Not even the basics of math? I bet you know more than you think. You’re a recipe person. There is math in that.

I can figure out recipes by sight, but not by math. Math just doesn’t register to me. If I see a recipe calls for ¾ of a cup of something, I simply see a marking that says ¾ of a cup on the measuring cup. No math involved. It might have been a picture of a gray kitty cat. Fill up the cup to the mark that has the gray kitty cat.

How the fuck do people find Steve Martin funny?

You can’t ½ a recipe, @Kardamom? It’s a challenge for me, and I have to check/double-check, but I can cypher if out.
I can only understand the math I need to know, which at the time is simple addition, subtraction and multiplication. I’ve gone back to using my fingers for most things because it’s easier than check’double/check.

@Kardamom Makes sense.

I’m just curious, how did you get through school? Did you have an exception? Do you officially have dyscalculia? Or, were you able to do basic math when drilled with it in school, but it just does not stick in your brain easily? I’m shocked I passed history at all, so I understand having a mental block about a topic. I only questioned the math ability, because so many people think they can’t do math, but they do basic math all the time and don’t realize it.

@JLeslie I had to take regular Algebra twice. Pre algebra I got a C (and a teacher who humiliated me in front of the whole class). I got a D in Geometry, never had any calculus. Took more algebra in college and got C’s. It just doesn’t register. I’ve done some “math” simply by memorization. ½ of 1 is ½, ½ of ½ is ¼. Memorization only, no math being done.

@ibstubro I can also halve things by having a measuring cup of the larger size and simply filling it up half way visually. No math involved. I also count on my fingers. I can only operate a calculator doing addition and multiplication. I can’t do any other tasks on a calculator. I can’t do any kind of math in my head. It’s got to be visual, kitty cats and puppy dogs. I can’t figure out percentages at all. When it comes to tipping, I can usually figure out how to double the amount of tax (not doing the percentage thing at all) because double the amount of tax turns out to be about the same amount as the tip should be in our state, but if it’s a crazy amount, say $3.45, I can’t figure it out, I have to have someone else tell me how much to tip, and I usually over tip. I also think tipping is stupid, they should just have the real amount calculated into the bill.

Neocolloidalism and fencrovanimaniasis.

Huh. My premise is flawed. Good thing it wasn’t really mine – thanks anyway! GAs! :)