Thought experiment

In philosophy, physics, and other fields, a thought experiment (from the German term Gedankenexperiment, coined by Ernst Mach) is an attempt to solve a problem using the power of human imagination. These experiments are used to attempt to understand something about the universe. Thought experiments have been used to pose questions in philosophy at least since Greek antiquity; a famous example is Plato's cave, but others pre-date Socrates. In physics and other sciences many famous thought experiments date from the nineteenth and especially the twentieth century, but examples can be found at least as early as Galileo.

External links

• http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/tsg3/thoughtexperimententry.pdf
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thought-experiment/
• Stevinus, Galileo, and Thought Experiments Short essay by S. Abbas Raza of 3 Quarks Daily