russ_watters said:
Inventing things in your mind isn't inventing, it is imagining. Inventing means actually designing or creating the thing.
I will have to respectfully disagree, the patent office has many patents, filed by inventors, which have never been built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention
Invention is often a
creative process. An open and curious mind allows an inventor to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, connection or relationship can spark an invention. Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors disregard the boundaries between distinctly separate territories or fields.[
citation needed] Several concepts may be considered when thinking about invention.
Re-envision[edit]
To invent is to see anew. Inventors often envision a new idea, seeing it in their
mind's eye. New ideas can arise when the conscious mind turns away from the subject or problem when the inventor's focus is on something else, or while relaxing or sleeping. A novel idea may come in a flash—a
Eureka! moment. For example, after years of working to figure out the general theory of relativity, the solution came to Einstein suddenly in a dream "like a giant die making an indelible impress, a huge map of the universe outlined itself in one clear vision".
[15] Inventions can also be accidental, such as in the case of
polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).
