thought experiment

noun

1. Physics.,  a demonstration or calculation that is based on the postulates of a theory, as relativity, and that demonstrates or clarifies the consequences of the postulates.

Word History and Origins

Origin of thought experiment¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

Another favorite question Atlas asks is the “man or bear” thought experiment.

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Musk met Grimes while trying to make a dad joke about Roko’s Basilisk, a thought experiment about an all-powerful future artificial intelligence that punishes past critics via time travel.

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Here is a thought experiment about real democracy in America: What if more working-class and middle-class Americans were elected to public office?

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It’s a thought experiment more than anything else, from a story by Komasa and Lori Rosene-Gambino, the latter who wrote the screenplay.

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The title itself hints at what a different time that was for TV and our nation: Thought leaders, academics and politicians gathered for this thought experiment in good faith.

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