eureka, heuristic

1. An exclamation of suddenly being successful at coming up with a solution to a problem or discovering something that was not expected.
2. Etymology: borrowed from Greek heureka, "I have found (it)", first person, singular, perfect active indicative form of heuriskein, "to find".

Historical details about eureka and discoveries.

1. Indicating or pointing out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.
2. Encouraging people to learn, to discover, to understand, or to solve problems on their own, as by experimenting; evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trials and errors: "She strived to promote a heuristic teaching method."
3. Pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.
4. Relating to a usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the investigation or solution of a problem: “The historian discovers the past by the judicious use of such a heuristic device as the ‘ideal type’” (Karl J. Weintraub).
5. Constituting an educational method in which learning takes place through discoveries that result from investigations made by students.
6. With reference to computers and mathematics: pertaining to a trial-and-error method of problem solving used when an algorithmic approach is impractical.
7. Computer Science; relating to or using a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution of several found by alternative methods is selected at successive stages of a program for use in the next step of the program.
8. A description of a computer program that modifies itself in response to the user; for example, a spell checker.
9. Etymology: "serving to discover" or "to find out"; 1821, irregular formation from Greel heuretikos, "inventive", related to heuriskein, "to find".

More details about heuristic.

The mental awareness of approaches that are likely to work or of properties which could be true, but which are not guaranteed: Heuristic knowledge makes it possible for people to discover or to learn something from experiences with interactive trials and errors.

Heuristic knowledge is considered to be a result of skills that provide the means to make improvements with writing techniques, computer programs, or any other method of doing something with better procedures.

A problem-solving approach characterized by exploration and trial and error.

In computer programming, a program that provides the framework for a trial-and-error approach to problem solving, based on guesses of likely solutions.

In artificial intelligence, a hypothesize-and-test strategy for problem solving that uses heuristics; such as, production rules, to select the best solution.

1. A descriptive term for aiding or guiding in discovery.
2. Designating an educational method by which pupils are stimulated to make their own investigations and discoveries.

Any of various problem-solving techniques that involve the use of subjective knowledge, hunches, trial and error, rule of thumb, and other such informal but generally considered to be accurate methods.