1. n. [Geophysics]

A technique for inversion, or generating a model that is consistent with the data, of electromagnetic data, including resistivity and magnetotelluric data. The algorithm is named for William of Occam (1300 to 1349), who asserted that scientific hypotheses and reasoning should be as simple as possible. The use of Occam's inversion produces a smooth model that fits a dataset within certain tolerances, although a smooth model might not be the best fit to the data.

See related terms: electromagnetic method,  inversion,  magnetotelluric method