thought experiment

English

Etymology

A calque of German Gedankenexperiment.

Noun

thought experiment (plural thought experiments)

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

Derived terms

• zombie thought experiment

 

Translations

attempt to solve a problem using human imagination

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 思想實驗／思想实验 (sīxiǎng shíyàn)

• Czech: myšlenkový experiment m
• Danish: tankeeksperiment n
• Estonian: mõtteline eksperiment
• Finnish: ajatuskoe
• French: exercice mental m, expérience imaginaire f, expérience de pensée (fr) f
• German: Gedankenexperiment (de) n
• Hungarian: gondolatkísérlet (hu)
• Italian: esperimento mentale m
• Japanese: 思考実験 (ja) (しこうじっけん, shikō jikken)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tankeeksperiment n

  Nynorsk: tankeeksperiment n

• Polish: eksperyment myślowy m
• Romanian: experiment mintal n, experiment de gândire n, experiment intelectic n
• Russian: мы́сленный экспериме́нт m (mýslennyj eksperimént)
• Spanish: experimento mental m, experimento pensado
• Swedish: tankeexperiment (sv) n