Carl E. Ockert
Carl E. Ockert | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Extinction-based interpretation of the speed of light in a moving medium and the Fizeau experiment |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics (optics) |
Carl E. Ockert is an author of physics work on the propagation of light through a moving medium. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
Ockert proposed an interpretation of the classic Fizeau experiment in which light traversing a moving medium is treated as a series of discrete steps, each step bounded by the extinction (absorption) and re-emission of the photon. On this "extinction" model, he argued that the instantaneous velocity of light between extinctions is c relative to a fixed frame, and reported that the resulting analysis reproduces the drag values Fizeau measured. His conclusion departed from the standard relativistic treatment of light in moving media.
Ockert's conclusion was taken up in the mainstream literature: a later analysis in the International Journal of Theoretical Physics examined the extinction picture, arguing that when dispersion is neglected it yields the same result as the usual theory — explicitly contrary to Ockert's conclusion — and that experimental data (the Zeeman dispersion measurements) favour the standard treatment. His ideas are archived among the physics-critique materials collected by Ekkehard Friebe.