- A thought experiment is a hypothetical situation in which a hypothesis, theory, or principle is laid out for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.
- Tania Australis (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
TANIA AUSTRALIS (Mu Ursae Majoris). Our Ursa Major, the Greater Bear, contains remnants of ancient Arabic constellations, the best-known example the star Alkaid, which refers to the leader of the daughters of a funeral bier. Southwest of the Dipper’s bowl lie three obvious pairs of stars that represent the bear’s paws, but to the Arabs were the tracks of leaping gazelles. The middle pair is the “second leap,” from which comes the name “Tania” (for “second”).
- Boltzmann brain (Wikipedia)
The Boltzmann brain thought experiment suggests that it might be more likely for a single brain to spontaneously form in a void, complete with a memory of having existed in our universe, rather than for the entire universe to come about in the manner cosmologists think it actually did. Physicists use the Boltzmann brain thought experiment as a reductio ad absurdum argument for evaluating competing scientific theories.
- Schrödinger’s cat (Wikipedia)