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In philosophy, physics, and other fields, a thought experiment (from the German Gedankenexperiment) 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.Many thought experiments include apparent paradoxes about the known or accepted, that with time have led to the reformulation or precision of theories.
1 Famous thought experiments
1.1 Physics
Thought experiments are popular in physics and include:
- Brownian ratchet ( Richard Feynman's " perpetual motion" machine which does not violate the second law, and does not work)
- Casimir cones (Basis for almost perpetual motion machine fueled by entropy)
- CHSH inequality (quantum mechanics)
- Galileo's ship (classical relativity principle) 1632
- GHZ experimentGHZ experiments are a class of experiments which arise in quantum mechanics, in discussion and experimental determination of whether local hidden variables are required for, or even compatible with, the representation of experimental results; and with par (quantum mechanics)
- EPR paradoxIn quantum mechanics, the EPR paradox is a thought experiment which demonstrates that the result of a measurement performed on one part of a quantum system can have an instantaneous effect on the result of a measurement performed on another part, regardle (quantum mechanics) (forms of this have actually been performed)
- Maxwell's demonMaxwell's Demon is the name of a creature thought up in 1867 by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell as part of a thought experiment meant to illustrate the Second law of Thermodynamics. This law forbids (among other things) that two bodies of equal ( thermodynamicsThermodynamics is the physics of energy, heat, work, entropy and the spontaneity of processes. Thermodynamics is closely related to statistical mechanics from which many thermodynamic relationships can be derived. While dealing with processes in which sys) 1871Events January January 18 The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany. January 28 France surrenders to en
- Quantum suicideQuantum suicide is a thought experiment which has been independently proposed in 1987 by Hans Moravec, in 1988 by Bruno Marchal and in 1998 by Max Tegmark that attempts to distinguish between the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the Ever (quantum mechanics)
- Schrödinger's catSchrodinger's cat is a thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrodinger that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of the theory of quantum mechanics when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems. The experiment proposes: A cat is placed in a sealed ( quantum mechanicswavefunctions of an electron in a hydrogen atom possessing definite energy (increasing downward: n 1,2,3,. and angular momentum (increasing across: s p d . Brighter areas correspond to higher probability density for a position measurement. The angular mom)
- Twin paradox ( special relativity)
- Wigner's friend (quantum mechanics)
- Wittgenstein's rod (engineering mechanics)- an exercise in visualization
- Bucket argument- argues that space is absolute, not relational
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