A simile can be found when using "like" or "as" between two things. Example: I'm as happy as a clown.
Your question would be a metaphor. Both things are being compared to a science expieriment, probably meaning that they need to have an outcome, but it isn't known for sure if it will be a good or bad outcome.
Things like this can be taken many ways, so if you think something else, I'm sure it would work as well.
Miller used the play as a criticism of McCarthyism. The Crucible is about the witch-hunt, plus trials that took place in Salem in 1692. In this play people cared about other people's business and being accused of witchcraft was the most dangerous sin. To avoid being hanged people accused others... so yeah
The intended meaning is to show how the speaker thinks that the colonists are being unfairly treated by the British government.
One is 61 inches, and the other is 305 inches
