SCIENCE: Magic on the Mind Physicists' Use of Metaphor

Author(s): ALAN P. LIGHTMAN

Source: The American Scholar, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Winter 1989), pp. 97-101
Published by: The Phi Beta Kappa Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41211647
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 SCIENCE

Magic on the Mind

Physicists' Use of Metaphor

ALAN P. LIGHTMAN

science.
I remember the day, during my first I will illustrate this point with some
course
examples
in cosmology, when the professor was tryingfrom physics.
to explain how the universe could be In an essay on light and color in 1672,
expand-
published
ing outward in all directions, but without anyin Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal
center of the expansion. To his credit, the Society, Isaac Newton describes his
first experiments with a prism. He darkened
teacher had covered the blackboard with
his pic-
equations, but we students still couldn't chamber, made a small hole in his "win-
dow-shuts,"
ture the situation. How could something ex- and let a ray of sunlight enter a
prism and
plode uniformly in all directions without a spread out into colors on the oppo-
site wall. He then interprets this phenomenon
middle of the explosion? Then, the professor
in terms of a theory of light:
said to pretend that space is two-dimensional
and that the stars and galaxies are dots on the
surface of an expanding balloon. From Thenthe
I began to suspect whether the rays, after
their are
point of view of any one dot, the other dots trajection through the prism, did not move in
curved
moving away from it in all directions, yet nolines, and according to their more or less
curvity tend to divers parts of the wall. And it
dot is the center. This powerful metaphor,
increased my suspicion, when I remembered that I
first introduced by Arthur Eddington in 1931,
had often seen a tennis ball struck with an oblique
has helped students of cosmology ever since,
racket describe such a curved line. . . . For the same
in every country and every languagereason,
where if the rays of light should possibly be glob-
the subject is taught. It works for anyone
ular who
bodies, and by their oblique passage out of one
has seen a balloon inflated. medium into another, acquire a circulating motion,
they ought to feel the greater resistance from the
Metaphor is critical to science. Metaphor in
ambient ether on that side where the motions con-
science serves not just as a pedagogical de-
spire, and hence be continually bowed to the other.
vice, like the cosmic balloon, but also as an
aid to scientific discovery. In doing science, it
is almost impossible not to reason by physicalThis passage is particularly revealing because
analogy, not to form mental pictures, notitto is a diary of Newton's personal thoughts in
imagine balls bouncing and pendulums trying to understand the nature of light. Al-
swinging. Metaphor is part of the process though
of Newton subsequently rejected the
idea that light rays can curve through space,
he continued to develop his corpuscular the-
O ALAN P. LIGHTMAN is professor of science
ory of light. In Query 29 of the Opticks (1704),
and writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
Newton writes that rays of light are "bodies of
nology and a physicist at the Smithsonian Astro-
physical Observatory. His essays on science have different sizes, the least of which may take
appeared in Harper's, The New Yorker, Smithso- violet, the weakest and darkest of the colours
and the most easily diverted by refracting
nian, Science 86, and other publications. His latest
book is A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticutsurfaces." The largest and strongest light cor-
Court. puscles carry red, the color least bent by a

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 THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR

prism. Newton's mechanical worldview, ofmost celebrated contribution to

Maxwell's
the for
which light was only a part, held sway theory
twoof electricity and magnetism was
centuries. the prediction of oscillating waves of electric
A hundred years after Newton's Opticks, and magnetic forces, called electromagnetic
the physician and physicist Thomas Young waves, which travel through space at the
allowed sunlight from his window to fall speed
on aof light. These waves were theoreti-
screen with two small holes in it. He then cally discovered by Maxwell after he added a
observed the alternating pattern of light single
and new mathematical term, called the
dark striking the opposite wall. From"displacement
these current," to the equations of
patterns, Young proposed, in a paper entitled
electricity and magnetism previously worked
out
"Interference of Light" (1807), that light by others. How did Maxwell deduce his
con-
sisted of "waves" rather than particles: hypothetical displacement current? When I
first learned the theory of electricity and mag-
Supposing the light of any given colour to consist
netismof as a college physics major, I thought
undulations of a given breadth, or of a given fre-
that the displacement current had been de-
quency, it follows that these undulations must be
rived by requiring mathematical consistency
liable to those effects which we have already exam-
ined in the case of the waves of water, and the and the conservation of electric charge. But,
pulses of sound. in fact, Maxwell was motivated by the de-
mands of his mechanical model. He knew
Young goes on to describe clearly the inter- from experiment that an electric or magnetic
ference of two sets of circular waves moving field can store energy. Because Maxwell had a
outward from the two holes in his screen - a
mechanical picture of his subject, and a me-
process of positive and negative reinforce-
chanical view of the world, such energy could
ment that would produce just the pattern only
of be mechanical in nature. Maxwell there-
light seen on the wall. One cannot imaginefore proposed that electrical and magnetic
how Young would have interpreted his obser-
energy was stored by stretching, or displac-
vations without having seen overlapping rip-
ing, an elastic medium that filled up space,
ples in a pond. just as energy is stored in a stretched rubber
The great nineteenth-century physicistband. In his classic paper of 1865, "A Dynam-
James Clerk Maxwell used an elaborate me- ical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,"
chanical model, actually a sustained meta-published in the Royal Society Transactions,
phor, to fathom the workings of electricity and
Maxwell writes:
magnetism. By analogy with fluids, Maxwell
envisioned a magnetic field to be made out of
Electric displacement, according to our theory, is a
closely spaced little whirlpools, which he kind of elastic yielding to the action of the force,
called vortices. To solve the problem of what similar to that which takes place in structures and
happens when two of these neighboring machines owing to the want of perfect rigidity of the
whirlpools touch and try to slow each other connexions. . .'. Energy may be stored in the
down, Maxwell mentally inserted between field ... by the action of electromotive force in
producing electric displacement. . . . [I]t resides in
each pair of vortices a system of electric par-
the space surrounding the electrified and magnetic
ticles that would act as ball bearings. De- bodies ... as the motion and strain of one and the
signed for the purpose of reducing friction, same medium.
the electric particles were also responsible for
carrying electric current. The mechanical When an electric force oscillated in time, the
metaphors here are striking. In his paper "On electric particles in the elastic medium oscil-
Physical Lines of Force" (1861), Maxwell lated in response, giving rise to the so-called
notes:
displacement current. The underlying elastic
medium that allowed all of this to happen was
In mechanism, when two wheels are intended to
called "ether." The ether was the material
revolve in the same direction, a wheel is placed
between them so as to be in gear with both, and this substance through which electromagnetic
wheel is called an "idle wheel." The hypothesis waves propagated, just as air is the substance
about the vortices which I have to suggest is that a through which sound waves propagate, by
layer of particles, acting as idle wheels, is inter- bumping one air molecule into the next.
posed between each vortex. Again, in Maxwell's words, "We have there-

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 PHYSICISTS' USE OF METAPHOR

fore some reason to believe, from

thethe phe-
Newtons and the Maxwells - use meta-
nomena of light and heat, that there is their
phor in an work. Metaphor and analogy are
rampant in physics. A graduate student and I
aetheral medium filling space and permeating
recently
bodies, capable of being set in motion andcalculated
of how gamma rays "reflect"
from a layer
transmitting that motion from one part to an- of cold gas. In a discussion of this
other/' Maxwell's mechanical model for elec- problem at the blackboard, beneath the equa-
tricity and magnetism, including the ether, tions, we drew a picture of a wavy line moving
was completely fictitious, but it led him to towards
the a wall. The line represented a single
correct equations.
"particle" of light, called a photon, and the
wall was the surface of the medium of gas.
In 1931, the Belgian priest and physicist
The conversation went something like this:
Georges Lematre published a stunning
"A high energy photon penetrates very
model for the origin of the universe. It was
deeply into the medium before it first scatters
already known at this time - both from Lema-
off an electron. Then the photon scatters sev-
tre's own theoretical work and from contem-
eral more times, bouncing around, losing en-
porary telescopic observations - that the uni-
ergy, and finally works its way back up to the
verse is evolving. It was also known that very
surface of the medium, where it escapes."
energetic particles, called cosmic rays, wereI will end with an example from the fore-
constantly bombarding earth from outerfront of theoretical physics - the string theory.
space, although the nature and origin of these
The concept of strings has emerged from
particles was still a mystery. Lematre pro-
highly mathematical and formal attempts to
posed that cosmic rays originated billions describe
of the fundamental forces of nature.
years ago from the radioactive disintegrations
According to current string theory, the small-
of enormous atoms and had been travelingest unit of matter is not a point-like object, but
through space ever since. Each of these an-
a one-dimensional structure called a "string."
cient, massive atoms, in fact, was the parent of
Here are some descriptions that leading string
a star. Going back still further in time, whentheorists have had the courage to put into
the cosmos was smaller and denser, the uni- print. "Scattering of strings is described by
verse itself began as a single, giant atom, the simple picture of strings breaking and
whose gradual disintegrations into smaller joining at the end." "Since a string has ten-
and smaller pieces formed nebulae, stars, and sion, it can vibrate much like an ordinary
finally cosmic rays. In "L'expansion de violin string. ... In quantum mechanics,
l'espace," published in the November 1931 waves and particles are dual aspects of the
issue of Revue des Questions Scientifiques, same phenomenon, and so each vibrational
Lematre writes: mode corresponds to a particle."
Ultimately, we are forced to understand all
scientific discoveries in terms of the items
We can conceive of space beginning with the pri-
meval atom and the beginning of space being from daily life - spinning balls, waves in wa-
marked by the beginning of time. The first stages ter, pendulums, weights on springs. We have
. . . consisted of a rapid expansion determined by no other choice. We cannot avoid forming
the mass of the initial atom. . . . The atom-world was mental pictures when we try to grasp the
broken into fragments, each fragment into still meaning of our equations, and how can we
smaller pieces. . . . The evolution of the world can picture what we have not seen? As Einstein
be compared to a display of fireworks that has just said in The Meaning of Relativity, "The uni-
ended.
verse of ideas is just as little independent of
the nature of our experiences as clothes are of
the form of the human body."
In this example, both the literal and the met-
aphorical pieces of the metaphor arise fromSometimes, different pictures of the same
the unseen world of physics. Lematre hasproblem provide new insights. For example,
the path that the earth takes in orbiting the
been called the father of the Big Bang model
of cosmology, but his primeval atom hypoth- sun can be described either as a distant re-
sponse to the sun itself, ninety-three million
esis went far beyond any theoretical or obser-
vational evidence. miles away, or as a local response to a gravi-
The above examples should not be taken to
tational field, filling or warping space around
the- sun. These two descriptions are mathe-
mean that only the most brilliant scientists

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 THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR

theto
matically equivalent, but they bring small
mindreflect the terrestrial world obvi-
very different pictures. As Richardously exercises a great magic on mankind's
Feynman
mind." Referring
comments in The Character of Physical Law to this same Bohr model,
Werner Heisenberg
(1965), they are equivalent scientifically but warned that "quantum
very different "psychologically,"mechanics has above all to free itself from
especially
when we are trying to guess new these
lawsintuitive
of pictures . . . that in principle
[are]the
nature. In one picture, we focus on nottwo
testable and thereby could lead to
masses; in the other, on the spaceinternal contradictions" (Die Naturwissen-
between
them. schaften, Vol. 14).
In the 1920s and 1930s, there were two
Physicists have a most ambivalent relation-
ship with metaphor. We desperately competing
want formulations
an of quantum theory,
intuitive sense of our subject, but we have
eventually shown to be mathematically equiv-
also been trained not to trust too much in our alent. Heisenberg was the architect of the
intuition. We like the sturdy feel of the earthhighly abstract version; Erwin Schrodinger
under our feet, but we have been informed by had worked out a more visual theory. In a
our instruments that the planet is flyingletter to Wolfgang Pauli in 1926, Heisenberg
through space at a hundred thousand miles wrote, "The more I reflect on the physical
per hour. We find comfort in visualizing portion
an of Schrodinger's theory the more dis-
electron as a tiny ball, but we have also been gusting I find it."
shocked to discover that a single electron can Schrodinger, in his reply in the Annalen der
Physik, wrote that he felt "repelled by the
spread out in ripples, like a water wave, oc-
cupying several places at once. We crave themethods of transcendental algebra" in Hei-
certainty of our equations, but we must givesenberg's theory, "which appeared very dif-
names to the symbols. At the age of twenty-ficult" and had a "lack of visualizability." A
five, Maxwell reflected on both the service few years later, in 1932, Professor Heisenberg
ascribed the nuclear force between a proton
and the danger of physical analogy in a paper
entitled <On Faraday's Lines of Force" and a neutron to the "migration" (Platz-
(1856), published in the Transactions of thewechsel) of an electron between them. Where
Cambridge Philosophical Society: did the alphas and betas in Heisenberg's
matrices or the readings from the electrome-
ters say that an electron could migrate? Re-
The first process therefore in the effectual study of
science, must be one of simplification and reduction
markably, Heisenberg's image of migrating
of the results ... to a form in which the mind can
particles as agents of force led three years
grasp them. . . . We must, therefore, discover some later to Hideki Yukawa's successful predic-
method of investigation which allows the mind at
tion of a new elementary particle, the meson.
every step to lay hold of a clear physical conception,
Ultimately, Bohr himself was frustrated in
without being committed to any theory founded on
the physical science from which that conception is attempts to intuitively grasp the world of
his
borrowed. the atom. In 1928, he lamented (Nature Sup-
plement, April 14, 1928):
When the quantum theory was being devel-
oped, in the first two decades of this century, We find ourselves here on the very path taken by
physicists agonized over their inability to pic-Einstein of adapting our modes of perception bor-
rowed from the sensations to the gradually deepen-
ture the wave-particle split personality of sub-
ing knowledge of the laws of nature. The hin-
atomic particles. In fact, physicists violently
drances met with on this path originate above all in
disagreed over whether such pictures werethe fact that . . . every word in the language refers to
even useful. In 1913, Niels Bohr, a pioneer ofour ordinary perceptions.
quantum theory, proposed a model for the
atom in which electrons orbited about a cen- Many contemporary physicists have essen-
tral nucleus. Max Born commented a decade tially given up trying to describe the units of
later (Die Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 27)nature that by anything based on common sense. t
"a remarkable and alluring result of Bohr's Richard Feynman has remarked that he can
atomic theory is the demonstration that picture
the invisible angels but not light waves.
atom is a small planetary system . . . the Steven Weinberg, like Bishop Berkeley,
thought that the laws of the macrocosmos in seems on the brink of abandoning the material

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 PHYSICISTS' USE OF METAPHOR

and tactile
world altogether when he says that after you relation to their subjects. Descartes
have described how an elementary particle
could see the disjointed image of a pen half in
behaves under various mathematical opera-
water and half in air. Du Fay could rub cats'
tions, "then you've said everything there is to copal or gum-lack or silk. Count
fur against
say about the particle . . . the particle is noth-
Rumford could feel the heat in a cannon just
ing else but a representation of its symmetry
bored. But in the last century or so, science
group" (R. Crease and Mann, The hasSecond
changed. Physics has galloped off into
Creation: Makers of Revolution in Twentieth
territories where our bodies cannot follow.
Century Physics, 1986). Yet physicists
We havestill
built enormous machines to dissect
use metaphors. Cosmologists still discuss how
the insides of atoms. We have erected tele-
the universe "expanded and cooled" during
scopes that peer out to unimaginable dis-
the first nanosecond after its birth. Relativists
tances. We have designed cameras that see
still talk about the "semipermeable mem- colors invisible to human eyes. Theorists have
brane" around a black hole. String theorists worked out equations to describe the begin-
still describe their unseen subatomic strings
ning of time. The objects of physics today are
as "stretching, vibrating, breaking." What far removed from human sensory experience.
other choice do we have? We must breathe,
As a result, it seems to me that metaphors in
even in thin air.
modern science carry a greater burden than
But there is a difference between meta-
metaphors in literature or history or art. Met-
phors used inside and outside of science. In
aphors in modern science must do more than
every metaphor, there is a principal and a
color their principal objects; they must build
subsidiary object, the literal and the meta-
their reality from scratch. Such substance, in
phorical, the original and the model. When
the palm of a modern physicist, is often hard
we use metaphors in ordinary human affairs,
to let go. Although aware that the ether was
we usually have a good sense of the principal
based only on mechanical analogy, Maxwell
object to begin with. The metaphor deepens
believed it existed. The year before he died,
our insight. When we hear that "the chairman
Maxwell wrote in the ninth edition of The
plowed through the discussion," we already
know a good deal about chairmen, commit- Encyclopaedia Britannica (1878) that he had
tees, and tiring discussion. But when we "no doubt that the interplanetary . . . spaces
say
are
that a photon scattered off an electron, what not empty but are occupied by a material
concrete experience do we have with elec- substance or body, which is certainly the
largest . . . body of which we have any knowl-
trons or photons? When we say that the uni-
edge." If a giant of science like Maxwell was
verse is shaped like the surface of a balloon,
what do we really know about how space seduced by his own metaphor, what can hap-
curves in three dimensions? pen to the rest of us? We ought not to forget
that when physicists say a photon scattered
Galileo admired Copernicus for being able
from an electron, they are discussing that
to imagine that the Earth moved, against all
common sense. But at least Copernicus un-which cannot be discussed. We can see the
tracks in a cloud chamber, but we cannot see
derstood that the Earth was a ball and had
an electron. Metaphors in science should be
seen other balls move. The objects of physics
handled
today, by contrast, are principally known as with caution, and with a clear knowl-
edge
runes in equations or blips from our instru- of the limits of our sensory experience of
the world.
ments. Earlier physicists had an immediate

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