Gadanekn Experiment:
``Gedanken'' is a German word for ``thought''. A thought experiment is one
you carry out in your head. In physics, a ``gedanken
experiment'' is used to refer to an experiment that is impractical to carry
out, but useful to consider because it can be reasoned about
theoretically. (A classic gedanken experiment of relativity theory involves
thinking about a man in an elevator accelerating through space.)
I grabbed this from FOLDOC.
In class I did not intend to imply the neo-hacker usage implied by the
second paragraph in the FOLDOC entry.