Human beings have used the world around them as a metaphor for inner life since long before anyone codified the idea of "metaphor". To this day, people use animals, machines and forces of nature to describe how they feel, how they look, and how they make choices. As humanity became more advanced, we created more of our own world, learned ever deeper secrets about the universe and its inner workings and expanded the vocabulary from which we draw poetic imagery. There was once a time when scientists believed outer space was filled with a substance they called ether, and thus was born a new naming convention and metaphor.

Humans differentiate ourselves from all other creatures on this planet because we never leave well enough alone. Through study and focused observation, we learn the keys to the cosmos, and by sheer will we bend the so-called rules to our ends, defying nature as we traverse the skies in jets, plunge into the oceans in submarines, and process huge amounts of data with computer programs. The powers we exert on our surroundings are perhaps the most difficult for us to fathom since they allow us to break all the other existing rules. So which law of physics do you defy? Take this quiz and we'll tell you.