thought experiment

Noun

Meaning

thought experiment (plural thought experiments)

(physics, philosophy) An attempt to solve a problem using the power of human imagination.

Source: en.wiktionary.org

Examples

Everyone's heard of Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment. You put a cat in a box with a bottle of poison, which many people would suggest is about as far as you need to go. Terry Pratchett

The utility of a thought experiment is inversely proportional to the size of its departures from reality. Daniel Dennett

Experience teaches...that there is no such thing as a thought experiment so clearly presented that no philosopher can misinterpret it... Daniel Dennett

A thought experiment courtesy of the Stoics. If you are tired of everything you possess, imagine that you have lost all these things. Jenny Offill

Close letter words and terms

thought detection thought differently thought echo thought leader thought leadership thought of