pilot experiment
1
4.6
- noun
- /ˈpaɪlət ɪkˈspɛrɪmənt/
- Specialized
- During the pilot experiment, scientists evaluated the effectiveness of their new drug on a small group of volunteers.
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Watch on YouTubeAnd the interesting thing is what what happens before and how do people prepare themselves and how they run pilot experiments.
- And the interesting thing is what what happens before and how do people prepare themselves and how they run pilot experiments.
Examples
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And so there are actually have been little pilot experiments to drop iron off the backs of huge tankers.
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While the pilot experiment to develop such a test produced disappointing results, the concepts may still be useful for those wishing to pursue this idea further.
Academic text (1991) -
Because we detected apparent credibility effects in the pilot experiment, we sought to determine if we could enhance those effects by explicitly attacking the $5 million demand in our primary experiment.
Academic text (2016) -
Bernard Grad, PhD, an emeritus professor of psychology at McGill University in Canada, conducted a pilot experiment on wound healing in mice.
Academic text (2005) -
With my olfaction research ending at Zeno speed, I've started pilot experiments for everyone's favorite sensory modality, taste!
Blog text (3) -
We conducted a pilot experiment in which we used a constant stimulus identification task and observed a trend toward increased values in IWS (see Supplemental Appendix B) that motivated the following specific hypotheses.
Academic text (2012) -
The researchers decided to conduct a pilot experiment to test their hypothesis on plant growth in different light conditions.
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Before launching the full study, the team ran a pilot experiment to assess the time and costs involved in data collection.
Synonyms
24
3.6
A small test project that tries a new idea before using it everywhere
15
3.2
A short test to see if something works well before real use
9
4.0
A small test of a new plan or system in a few places to see if it works
2
3.9
A test of a new product or system in real use to see how well it works
How Extensive
29
4.4
15
3.6
- Specialized
1
4.1
- Specialized
1
4.6
823
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a small-scale preliminary study' is directly derivable from combining 'pilot' (a trial/run or something that precedes and guides a full-scale effort) with 'experiment' (a scientific test). The compositional relation is straightforward—despite a small POS shift from verb to noun/adjective use—so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Pilot experiment comes from the idea of a small experiment that acts like a pilot guiding a bigger project. So, a pilot experiment means 'a small test' used to check if the main study will work.