Categories: Alternative conceptions, Comparisons
An example of phrasing in popular science writing likely to mislead readers:
"Even hydro-electric power really comes from the Sun, for it is the Sun's heat that sucks water from the oceans into the atmosphere."
Fred Hoyle (1960) The Nature of the Universe (Revised ed.), 1960
Presumably, Hoyle was using sucking as a metaphor – heat is absorbed by the oceans, which increases water temperature. The higher the temperature of the surface waters, the greater the average speed of the water molecules and the higher the proportion which have enough kinetic energy to leave the liquid if they are moving in the right direction at its surface.
Unfortunately, it is common for learners to think sucking can apply a direct force, and so act to move material.
