How to Boost Your Creativity and Innovation with Thought Experiments
The secret behind some of humanity's most incredible inventions is that they often started as thought experiments. Thought experiments are hypothetical scenarios to test, explore, or illustrate ideas, theories, or principles. They are often employed in fields such as philosophy, physics, mathematics, and ethics, where empirical evidence may be difficult or impossible to obtain.
However, thought experiments are not only useful for scientists and philosophers. They are also for anyone who wants to be more creative and innovative. When you imagine different scenarios and possibilities, you can expand your horizons and challenge assumptions. You can also discover new connections and insights leading to novel solutions or products.
A sense of play and curiosity is essential for creative innovation, and thought experiments are a great way to foster this. The best inventions often start with a playful question or a whimsical idea that sparks the imagination and invites further exploration. Thought experiments keep you tapped into your inner child and can unleash new creative potential.
Throughout history, thought experiments have been a source of inspiration for inventions, as they challenge the imagination and the boundaries of what is possible. This article explores some of the more famous inventions that started as thought experiments as well as a recent deep sea discovery that is inspiring the scientific community to conduct some fascinating thought experiments.
Archimedes' Thought Experiment with the King's Crown
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician and engineer who lived in the 3rd century BC. He is famous for his geometry, mechanics, hydrostatics, and astronomy discoveries. One of his most well-known contributions is the principle of buoyancy, which states that a body immersed in a fluid experiences an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. Archimedes discovered this principle through a thought experiment that involved a king's crown.
According to legend, King Hiero II of Syracuse asked Archimedes to determine whether his crown was made of pure gold or mixed with silver. Archimedes knew that gold and silver had different densities, but he did not have a way to measure the volume of the irregularly shaped crown. He pondered over this problem until one day, he went to take a bath and noticed that the water level rose as he submerged himself in the tub. He realized that he could use this phenomenon to measure the crown's volume by comparing how much water it displaced with how much water a known mass of gold displaced. He was so excited by his discovery that he ran out of the bath naked, shouting, "Eureka!" (I have found it!).
Archimedes' discovery has many applications in engineering and science, such as designing ships, submarines, balloons, and airships.
Franklin's Kite Thought Experiment
Benjamin Franklin was a statesman, inventor, scientist, writer, and diplomat. Today we'd describe him as a polymath. He is best known for his experiments and inventions related to electricity, such as the lightning rod, the bifocal glasses, and the Franklin stove. Most people have heard of Franklin's most famous thought experiment, which involved flying a kite during a thunderstorm to prove that lightning was a form of electricity, but only a few know the whole story behind it.
Franklin was fascinated by electricity, reading about it in books and performing experiments with Leyden jars (early capacitors). He wanted to test his hypothesis that lightning was an electrical discharge between clouds and the earth. He devised a thought experiment that involved attaching a metal key to a silk kite and flying it near a thundercloud. He reasoned that if lightning were electric, some charge would be transferred from the cloud to the key through the wet kite string. He imagined that he could then collect this charge in a Leyden jar or feel a shock from touching the key.
Franklin carried out his experiment in June 1752 with the help of his son William. He flew his kite near a thundercloud and waited for a spark to jump from the key to his knuckle. He felt a slight shock and observed that the loose fibers of the string stood erect, indicating that they were charged. He also managed to charge a Leyden jar with the electricity from the key. He later wrote about his experiment in a letter to Peter Collinson, a fellow scientist in London. "I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done…" Franklin wrote to Collinson.
Franklin's preoccupation with electricity led him to imagine many possible scenarios for testing and harnessing electricity, paving the way for further discoveries and inventions using electricity.
Einstein's Train Thought Experiment
Albert Einstein is famous for his theories of special and general relativity, which revolutionized our understanding of space and time. But he also made significant contributions to quantum mechanics, cosmology, and nuclear physics. One of his most ingenious thought experiments was the train and the lightning, which illustrates the relativity of simultaneity.
Einstein imagined a train moving at high speed along a straight track. He also imagined two lightning bolts striking the two ends of the train simultaneously. He then considered two observers: one on the train and one on the ground. He asked: would they agree on whether the lightning bolts struck simultaneously or not?
Einstein concluded that they would not agree. The observer on the ground would see the lightning bolts strike at the same time, because they are equidistant from him. However, the observer on the train would see the lightning bolt at the front of the train strike first, because he is moving towards it, and the lightning bolt at the back of the train strike later, because he is moving away from it. Therefore, simultaneity is not absolute but relative to the state of motion of the observer.
Because Einstein was open to imagining novel scenarios and basing thought experiments on them, he demonstrated that time is not a fixed quantity that is the same for everyone but a variable that depends on the speed and position of the observer. This eventually led to the understanding of a four-dimensional continuum called spacetime.
McClintock's Thought Experiment on "Jumping Genes"
Barbara McClintock, an American geneticist and the 1983 Nobel laureate pioneered a groundbreaking thought experiment in genetics. McClintock proposed a model of "jumping genes" or transposable elements, which questioned the fixed linear structure of genes on a chromosome, a prevailing belief in the scientific community at that time.
While observing unusual patterns of coloration in maize kernels, McClintock hypothesized that certain genes could move along the chromosome - a radical idea for the 1940s and 1950s. She imagined various scenarios of how this process might occur and what genes might take part. She conducted experiments to test her ideas, including methodical crossbreeding experiments, which led to the discovery of transposons or transposable elements.
McClintock's thought experiment reshaped what she thought was possible and allowed her to make a significant discovering in the field of genetics. Today, we know that transposons play a crucial role in gene regulation and evolution. Her work demonstrates that thought experiments can challenge the existing paradigm and push the frontier of our knowledge.
Modern Thought Experiments Inspired by Ultra-black Fish
Scientists recently discovered special pigment cells in deep-sea fish skin that can absorb more than 99 percent of the light that touches it. This ultra-black skin color or pigmentation that protects 16 varieties of deep-sea fish helps them camouflage in the dark depths of the ocean, where bioluminescent predators and prey abound. Researchers recently discovered that these fish achieve their ultra-blackness by having specialized pigment cells called melanophores that are densely packed with tiny granules of melanin. These granules scatter light in all directions, preventing it from reflecting back to the eye of an observer.
The ultra-black fish are inspiring new thought experiments in stealth technology, optical devices, art, and even medicine, with possible innovation in skin cancer treatment. Researchers have started testing these ideas and have already created an artificial material mimicking the ultra-black fish skin that can absorb 99.995 percent of light.
Thought experiments are exciting ways of exploring and testing ideas that may be difficult or impossible to verify any other way. They have inspired inventions that changed our world and our understanding of it. Some of the most influential thinkers in history have used thought experiments to advance their fields and challenge our assumptions.
We are all capable of imagining scenarios. We do it when we imagine what that Monday meeting will be like or what someone might say if we ask them for a favor. The truth is, while we use our imagination daily, we often don't challenge it that much, and worse yet, we often use it to worry, imagining possible negative scenarios.
By setting aside weekly or even daily time for exploring imaginative possibilities through thought experiments, we can slowly become more comfortable with visualizing the "what ifs" that can lead to discovery and creative innovation. Why don't you go ahead and give it a try?
Just imagine what you might accomplish!
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Lallensack, R. (2021, December 29). Ten Scientific Discoveries From 2021 That May Lead to New Inventions. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/ten-scientific-discoveries-from-2021-that-may-lead-to-new-inventions-180979285/.
McAllister, J. W. (1996). The evidential significance of thought experiment in science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 27(2), 233-250. ISSN 0039-3681. https://doi.org/10.1016/0039-3681(95)00044-5.
Sexton, C. (2020, July 21.). Elusive, Ultra-Black Fish Are Cloaked to Survive in the Deep Ocean. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/Elusive-Ultra-black-Fishes-Are-Cloaked-to-Survive-the-Deep-Ocean-180975367/