Norbert Derksen: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Scientist]] | '''Norbert Derksen''' is a German engineer (Diplom-Ingenieur) based in Konstanz on Lake Constance who is known as a critic of Albert Einstein's [[special relativity]]. He is included in the ''Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists''. | ||
==Biography== | |||
Derksen holds the German engineering qualification of Diplom-Ingenieur (Dipl.-Ing.) and lives in Konstanz, near Lake Constance in southern Germany. According to his own account he became preoccupied with Einstein's special theory of relativity while still at school. After many years of private study and, by his description, hundreds of pages of his own calculations, he concluded by 1983 that the theory must be incorrect. In that year the ''Südkurier'', the largest regional newspaper of the Konstanz area, published an article about him under the title "Ein Mann glaubt nicht an Einsteins Formel" ("A man does not believe in Einstein's formula"). | |||
==Work== | |||
Derksen's central claim concerns the [[Lorentz transformation]]. He argued that the transformation is not "transitive", by which he meant that the successive application of two velocity transformations (boosts) does not in general yield another simple boost. On this basis he rejected special relativity and called for its removal from research and teaching. To draw attention to his argument, he offered a reward of 10,000 euros to anyone who could demonstrate that the Lorentz transformation possesses the transitivity he denied. | |||
Physicists and other commentators who responded to Derksen have disputed his reasoning. They note that the composition of two non-collinear Lorentz boosts does indeed produce a further Lorentz transformation, namely a boost combined with a spatial rotation (an effect associated with Thomas–Wigner rotation), and that the additional rotation term is what his argument omits. Critics have also observed that his use of the mathematical term "transitivity" does not correspond to its established meaning in mathematics. | |||
==External links== | |||
* [https://groups.google.com/g/relativity-skeptics/c/M5mXMHdU0UY List of Critics of Relativity] | |||
* [https://www.jocelyne-lopez.de/blog/2010/04/dipl-ing-norbert-derksen-belohnung-von-10-000-e/ "Dipl.-Ing. Norbert Derksen: Belohnung von 10.000 €" (Jocelyne Lopez, 2010)] | |||
[[Category:Scientist|Derksen Norbert]] | |||
[[Category:Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists]] | |||
Latest revision as of 22:08, 17 July 2026
Norbert Derksen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Residence | Konstanz, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Relativity |
Norbert Derksen is a German engineer (Diplom-Ingenieur) based in Konstanz on Lake Constance who is known as a critic of Albert Einstein's special relativity. He is included in the Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Biography
Derksen holds the German engineering qualification of Diplom-Ingenieur (Dipl.-Ing.) and lives in Konstanz, near Lake Constance in southern Germany. According to his own account he became preoccupied with Einstein's special theory of relativity while still at school. After many years of private study and, by his description, hundreds of pages of his own calculations, he concluded by 1983 that the theory must be incorrect. In that year the Südkurier, the largest regional newspaper of the Konstanz area, published an article about him under the title "Ein Mann glaubt nicht an Einsteins Formel" ("A man does not believe in Einstein's formula").
Work
Derksen's central claim concerns the Lorentz transformation. He argued that the transformation is not "transitive", by which he meant that the successive application of two velocity transformations (boosts) does not in general yield another simple boost. On this basis he rejected special relativity and called for its removal from research and teaching. To draw attention to his argument, he offered a reward of 10,000 euros to anyone who could demonstrate that the Lorentz transformation possesses the transitivity he denied.
Physicists and other commentators who responded to Derksen have disputed his reasoning. They note that the composition of two non-collinear Lorentz boosts does indeed produce a further Lorentz transformation, namely a boost combined with a spatial rotation (an effect associated with Thomas–Wigner rotation), and that the additional rotation term is what his argument omits. Critics have also observed that his use of the mathematical term "transitivity" does not correspond to its established meaning in mathematics.