The Clam Chowder Hetereogenous Example

Sometimes food analogies serve as the best illustrations.  Last week I was explaining distributed computing systems with terminology we've used for years: homogenous and heterogeneous.  I shared a a wikipedia entry for my colleague and we found it has the best illustration for describing heterogeneity: clam chowder!

Conversely, if you live in a dairy farm (like I do), or have been around a dairy, you know that fresh from the farm milk is not consistent when you milk it.  Fresh milk in the pail separates into different "layers", namely, the cream rises to the top.  Mass producers and milk distributors "homogonize" the milk, making it more consistent.  Most of the milk you buy in the store is homogenized or ultra-homogenized these days.

Definitions (from wiki)

• heterogeneous. It is the nature of opposition, or contrariety of qualities. Pertaining to the sciences, it is a substance that is diverse in kind or nature; composed of diverse parts
• homogeneous. Pertaining to the sciences, it is a substance where all the constituents are of the same nature; consisting of similar parts, or of elements of the like nature