sand wants to form a slope

Tags: piles

An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:

"the angle of repose, and this is the natural angle that the dry sand wants to be at to form a slope, it is somewhere on the order of 32 to 35 degrees."

Prof. Bruce Malamud (Wilson Chair of Hazard and Risk and Executive Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at Durham University) was being
interviewed on an episode of 'The Life Scientific')

Read about anthropomorphism

Read examples of anthropomorphism in science

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.