Many human metaphors map a more abstract concept to something more physical. Some of these metaphors are so baked into our language and our thought that it's difficult to recognize that anything non-literal is happening. Here are a few common examples:
- quantity is size: a big number
- quantity is height: low attendance
- frequency is height: a high note
- time is space: behind the times
damn, english people knew about spacetime long before einstein came about