An example of anthropomorphism used in explaining science:
"you see a little drop of water, a tiny drop. And the atoms [sic, molecules] attract each other, they like to be next to each other. They want as many partners as they can get. Now the guys that are at the surface have only partners on one side here, in the air on the other side, so they're trying to get in. And you can imagine…this teeming people, all moving very fast, all trying to have as many partners as possible and the guys at the edge are very unhappy and nervous and they keep pounding in, trying to get in, and that makes it a tight ball instead of a flat, and that's what, you know, surface tension. When you realise when you see how sometimes a water drop sits like this on a table then you start to imagine why it's like that because everybody is trying to get into the water"
Prof. Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman was talking on a 1983 BBC series of short episodes in a series called 'Fun to Imagine'. (Read 'Surface tension is due to everybody trying to get into the water')
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index
