An example of analogy used to explain science:
"And just as the colours of plush or velvet will vary as you stroke one part of the fabric one way and another part another way just as the wind creates waves of colour and shadow in a field of corn as it falls differently in different parts of it so the posture and inclination of the particles in a given body will govern the way the light is modified before it is returned to the eye."
Herbert Butterfield (1957) The Origins of Modern Science 1300-1800 (New Edition: Revised and enlarged). G. Bell and Sons Ltd., London.
Butterfield is discussing the ideas of Robert Boyle. There is something of a double analogy here. The suggestion is that the arrangement of the submicroscopic particles in a material are responsible for the way light is reflected. This is (1) similar to the way some materials seem to change appearance as you brush them and reconfigure the surface, which in turn is (2) like the way the corn field appears different according to how wind changes the angle at which one is seeing the corn!
Read examples of scientific analogies
Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
