[GuiA]

Perhaps I'm simplifying/abstracting a bit too much here but - colors are single dimensional (i.e. the wavelength of the light you're seeing) whereas smells are multidimensional/maybe not even really mappable to any continuum.

[pygy_]

Colors are not wavelength. Color actually has three dimensions that can be coded as RGB, HSL, LAB, or using degenerate coding in four dimensions with CYMK.

Visual geometry has three dimensions, making vision a 6 dimensions thing (plus time, but that is added to every sense).

You point still stands though, since AFAIK smell has many more dimensions (not sure if they've been thoroughly counted).

[GolDDranks]

Actually, color sensation is three dimensional because we have three types of cells that are sensitive to different frequencies.

One could maybe argue that the dimensionality of a smell sensation corresponds to the amount of types of receptors we have in our noses.

[red75prime]

> colors are single dimensional

Light is a mixture of different wavelengths, so, in a sense, it's infinitely dimensional. People's perception of light is usually three dimensional.

> maybe not even really mappable to any continuum

I think it cannot be continuum, as sense of smell is caused by discrete molecules. As for "not mappable", it can be that it's mappable, but our brain is really bad at it.

[amelius]

But light is composed of photons, which carry a certain energy which is responsible for the color you see.

[scatters]

Pinks and purples are non-spectral, mixing red and blue. Browns are unsaturated, dark oranges. Greys contain all wavelengths.