I like your analogy better. But it still implies that you could feel one car and one house, which you couldn't. So, perhaps an even better analogy would be:

I like your analogy better. But it still implies that you could feel one car and one house, which you couldn't. So, perhaps an even better analogy would be: If the Earth was the size of an orange, your finger could feel the difference between cities and forests. This puts more emphasis on the distinct patterns the objects form as a group, rather than the individual objects.