thought experiment

English

Etymology

A calque of German Gedankenexperiment, equivalent to thought +‎ experiment.

Noun

thought experiment (plural thought experiments)

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

Translations

attempt to solve a problem using human imagination

• Czech: myšlenkový experiment m
• Danish: tankeeksperiment n
• Finnish: ajatuskoe
• French: exercice mental m, expérience imaginaire f, expérience de pensée (fr) f
• German: Gedankenexperiment (de) n
• Hungarian: gondolatkísérlet (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: esperimento mentale m
• Japanese: 思考実験 (しこうじっけん, shikō jikken)
• Romanian: experiment mintal n, experiment de gândire n, experiment intelectic n
• Spanish: experimento mental m, experimento pensado
• Swedish: tankeexperiment (sv) n