Agreed, but it depends. The analogy can make things harder if you&#x27;re not intimately familiar with the analogy. Take the below, an excerpt from the explanation on prime numbers for example, and consider you know 0 chemistry (not unlikely if you&#x27;re reading an intro on prime numbers):<p>-----
&gt; I&#x27;m no chemistry expert, but I can see a relationship to the primes. Chemical elements have properties based on their location in the periodic table of the elements:<p>Atoms in group 8A (Neon, Argon) are the noble gases. They don&#x27;t react and won&#x27;t blow up in your face.
Atoms in group 4A (Carbon, Silicon) bond well. They&#x27;re great building blocks for other elements.
Atoms in group 1 (Sodium, Potassium, etc.) are very reactive. Drop &#x27;em in water and see them explode.
And in organic chemistry there&#x27;s an idea of a functional group: several atoms can determine the class of the entire molecule. For example:<p>Alcohols are a certain carbon-hydrogen chain with an OH group at the end.
Methanol, ethanol, and other alcohols share similar properties because of this OH functional group.
Those are the basics, if I didn&#x27;t mess it up. Now let&#x27;s see what happens when we treat numbers like chemicals.<p>First Example: Guessing Evenness
In general, an organic chemical contains carbon (not quite, but it&#x27;s a good starting point). No matter what elements you mix together, if you never add any carbon then you can&#x27;t create an organic compound.
-----<p>Anyway, a single example doesn&#x27;t negate your point. I love analogies in learning, but one has to be careful to pick analogies from a level of understanding (way) below what you&#x27;re trying to explain. I guess kids are introduced to primes and chemistry at roughly the same age, but I&#x27;d have picked a non-academic analogy to explain an academic concept. But even then, it&#x27;s tricky. For example I&#x27;ve been confused by my fair share of &#x27;sports analogies&#x27; in secondary school books, for sports I happened not to have ever tried or knew the rules for. But really, the analogy should be completely supplemental, and if possible marked off in a side box that people can, but not should, read for better understanding if it helps them. I find many school books do this really well, but I haven&#x27;t seen it translated to web content as much somehow. For example, on Evenness he&#x27;ll continue by explaining how if you have a factor of 2 in your number (e.g. 24 = 2^3 * 3), then no matter what, the number is even, likening it to an organic chemical which contains carbon no matter what (though, noting a caveat without going into it). I don&#x27;t think that analogy is very strong, it&#x27;s confusing if you don&#x27;t know chemistry, and it&#x27;s pretty redundant if you do. In fact I&#x27;d personally be better of without it, and understood Kalid&#x27;s normal explanation without issue. Yet I had to read through something about Atoms in group 4A and their properties, unsure whether I could just skip it or whether it was important to grasp some larger point. Anyway I was already familiar with primes but my 12 year old self probably would&#x27;ve been confused with the chemistry analogy.