An example of simile used to explain (historical) scientific ideas:
"For Copernicus, furthermore, gravity still remained a tendency or an aspiration in the alienated body, which rushed, so to speak, to join its mother – it was not a case of the earth exercising an actual 'pull' on the estranged body. …
Kepler must have an important place in the story because, under the influence of the magnetic theory, he turned the whole problem of gravity into a problem of what we call attraction. It was no longer a case of a body aspiring to reach the earth, but, rather, it was the earth which was to be regarded as drawing the body into its bosom."
Herbert Butterfield (1957) The Origins of Modern Science 1300-1800 (New Edition: Revised and enlarged). G. Bell and Sons Ltd., London.
Read about examples of science similes
