the Earth's crust is its rind

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Categories: Comparisons

An historical example of use of simile and metaphor in science:

"To date we have declared the nature & powers of the loadstone, & also the properties & essence of iron; it now remains to show their mutual affinities, & kinship, so to speak, & how very closely conjoined these substances are. At the highest part of the terrestrial globe, or at its perishable surface & rind, as it were, these two bodies usually originate & are produced in one and the same matrix, as twins in one mine."

William Gilbert

Gilbert, W. (1600). On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth. A new science, with many both arguments and experiment proofs. (V. Wilmont, Trans.). Lulu.com.

(I am considering 'rind, as it were' as simile and 'as twins in one mine' as metaphor.)

Read about similes in science

Read about examples of science similes

[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index

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.