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by slaundy 5155 days ago
Excellent point. Not only that, but analogies always come along with extra bits that may lead them down the wrong path. It's very tricky to find just the right metaphor.
1 comments

Richard Feynman answering the question "How do magnets work" in an informal pick-your-brain type interview:

"I can't explain that attraction in terms of anything else that's familiar to you. For example, if we said the magnets attract like rubber bands, I would be cheating you. Because they're not connected by rubber bands. I'd soon be in trouble. And secondly, if you were curious enough, you'd ask me why rubber bands tend to pull back together again, and I would end up explaining that in terms of electrical forces, which are the very things that I'm trying to use the rubber bands to explain. So I have cheated very badly, you see. So I am not going to be able to give you an answer to why magnets attract each other except to tell you that they do."

From the 1983 BBC "Fun to Imagine" series. Video for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM
this is one of the funniest videos I've ever seen. I love HN!