meteors and meteorites are impetuous

Tags: comets, meteorites, meteors, shooting stars
Categories: Pseudo-explanations

An example of anthropomorphism in popular science writing:

"Comets are sometimes confused with their impetuous kin, the meteors and meteorites that dash into the Earth's upper air from outer space and either burn up as 'shooting stars' or reach the ground as incandescent lumps of iron, stone and tar."

Nigel Calder
The Comet is Coming! The feverish legacy of Mr Halley

Calder, N. (1980). The Comet is Coming! The feverish legacy of Mr Halley. British Broadcasting Corporation.

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Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.