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That Famous Equation and You
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/opinion/30greene.html ^ | September 30, 2005 | BRIAN GREENE

Posted on 10/01/2005 8:10:18 PM PDT by GummyIII

That Famous Equation and You

By BRIAN GREENE

Correction Appended

DURING the summer of 1905, while fulfilling his duties in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland, Albert Einstein was fiddling with a tantalizing outcome of the special theory of relativity he'd published in June. His new insight, at once simple and startling, led him to wonder whether "the Lord might be laughing ... and leading me around by the nose."

But by September, confident in the result, Einstein wrote a three-page supplement to the June paper, publishing perhaps the most profound afterthought in the history of science. A hundred years ago this month, the final equation of his short article gave the world E = mc².

In the century since, E = mc² has become the most recognized icon of the modern scientific era. Yet for all its symbolic worth, the equation's intimate presence in everyday life goes largely unnoticed. There is nothing you can do, not a move you can make, not a thought you can have, that doesn't tap directly into E = mc². Einstein's equation is constantly at work, providing an unseen hand that shapes the world into its familiar form. It's an equation that tells of matter, energy and a remarkable bridge between them.

More here...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Philosophy; Technical
KEYWORDS: albert; einstein; emc2; equation; physics
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To: PatrickHenry
Thanks, for the Ping. PH :)
61 posted on 10/02/2005 5:57:46 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: William Tell
Einstein's discovery of E=mc2 modifies the situation so that the speed of light can never be exceeded.

That's where you're wrong. They exceed the speed of light in almost every Star Trek episode ever made.

62 posted on 10/02/2005 6:22:34 AM PDT by Jalapeno
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To: PatrickHenry

Thanks for the ping!


63 posted on 10/02/2005 6:57:50 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: PatrickHenry

Thanks for the ping.


64 posted on 10/02/2005 8:19:36 AM PDT by GOPJ
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To: Ichneumon

As with most things, the default position is that longstanding science is right and Einstein is right.

If that leads to the unexpected (to a layman) result that chemical reactions convert mass to energy, then it's time to hit the books to find out how and why.

It's interesting how many people will try to stick with common sense when it conflicts with reality.


65 posted on 10/02/2005 10:11:37 AM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: William Tell

Your explanations are helpful.


66 posted on 10/02/2005 10:22:10 AM PDT by reasonisfaith
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To: gondramB

Actually, those were examples of mass being converted to energy.


67 posted on 10/02/2005 10:22:11 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: js1138
js1138 said: "It's interesting how many people will try to stick with common sense when it conflicts with reality."

What's even more interesting, perhaps, is that Einstein himself had serious concerns about quantum theory.

My guess is that Einstein was completely convinced that quantum theory always generates the correct answers. But the nature of quantum theory is that only the probability of a given outcome can be calculated. The actual outcome varies randomly as described by the mathematical probabilities. I believe that Einstein died a proponent of the "hidden variables" idea. That is, Einstein thought that "God does not play dice". Einstein thought that there could be hidden variables which dictated which of the possible outcomes of a quantum-physical experiment would occur.

Since then, there are some convincing experiments which indicate that quantum-physical events are truly random and such outcomes cannot be completely predicted.

68 posted on 10/02/2005 11:01:36 AM PDT by William Tell
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To: reasonisfaith
reasonisfaith said: "Your explanations are helpful"

That makes the effort worthwhile.

I try to proofread each posting at least twice. Even then, I sometimes type something completely erroneous without being able to spot it.

If there's anything that seems wrong or unclear, don't hesitate to ask. I won't take it personally if you spot a mistake and I welcome comments from the Freepers out there who know more about this than I do.

69 posted on 10/02/2005 11:06:42 AM PDT by William Tell
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To: gondramB

I didn't believe it either, but several months ago I had it explained to me in a manner I could follow.

As strange as it seems to someone who, like me, never advanced beyond high-school physics, matter-to-energy conversion and vice-versa does apply to chemical and mechanical reactions. Just to so slight a degree that it is not worth bothering with for explaining simple quotidian events.


70 posted on 10/02/2005 11:09:50 AM PDT by King Prout (19sep05 - I want at least 2 Saiga-12 shotguns. If you have leads, let me know)
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To: King Prout
Question #1: Why do we appear to be in the center of the Hubble volume?

Question #2: Why does the Hubble redshift expansion appear to give the age of the universe as 1 billion years when the earth's surface is 4 billion years old and the Big Bang apparently happened 14 billion years ago?

Question #3: Why did Einstein assume that nothing moved faster than the speed of light and then conclude after a shower of tensors that nothing can move faster than the speed of light?

71 posted on 10/02/2005 11:16:21 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: RightWhale
1. dunno. 2. dunno. 3. dunno. also, I thought the conclusion was that nothing can accelerate from /=C
72 posted on 10/02/2005 11:22:35 AM PDT by King Prout (19sep05 - I want at least 2 Saiga-12 shotguns. If you have leads, let me know)
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To: RightWhale

what the HELL?
damned html...
1. dunno
2. dunno
3. dunno. also, I thought the conclusion was that nothing can accelerate from < C to >/=C


73 posted on 10/02/2005 11:24:17 AM PDT by King Prout (19sep05 - I want at least 2 Saiga-12 shotguns. If you have leads, let me know)
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To: GummyIII

74 posted on 10/02/2005 11:29:45 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: King Prout
The special theory describes how things will look, and looking means that we use light to make our measurements. This does not necessarily mean that things cannot move faster than the speed of light. In string theory there are tachyons. The math is consistent, but who said the universe obeys the axioms of math? There are a lot of things in math that have no immediate application to the world of matter. Even something cut and dry as mechanics does not a priori claim to predict how things will behave, but rather it is the other way around: we see how things behave and then adjust our mechanics to fit what we observe.
75 posted on 10/02/2005 11:32:17 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: RightWhale

Did you ever notice that Einstein's E=MC^2 is similar to Newton's F=MA

In Einstein's case, E is the energy (or Force) of the electro-magnetic spectrum (ie photons and light) and the acceleration is simply the speed of light (the speed of the electro-magnetic spectrum) squared.

Einstein's E deals exclusively with the energy of light and the electro-weak-magnetic force.

It seems to me that F=MA and E=MC^2 should be expanded on to fit into other forms of energy.


76 posted on 10/02/2005 11:44:37 AM PDT by JustDoItAlways
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To: RightWhale

difference between acceleration and moving.
IIRC, as a particle with mass accelerates approaching C, it's mass would approach infinity, making the energy requirement for continued acceleration also approach infinity.
"things" without mass would not have that problem, would they?
also, nothing I understand of the theory suggests that there cannot be things, particles, waves that simply move faster than C, just that they cannot accelerate from below C to or beyond C.
IIRC, tachyons supposedly just move faster than C, period.


77 posted on 10/02/2005 11:45:04 AM PDT by King Prout (19sep05 - I want at least 2 Saiga-12 shotguns. If you have leads, let me know)
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To: King Prout

The thing that makes particles accelerate is electromagnetic forces. This is essentially light itself. Of course nothing can move faster than the speed of propagation of that which makes it move. The mass, the resistance to further acceleration, would appear to grow infinitely. We might create another kind of force that propagates faster, and if it interacts with matter we might then move faster than the speed of light. It wouldn't look like we were moving faster than light anyway.


78 posted on 10/02/2005 12:09:51 PM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: JustDoItAlways; RightWhale; RadioAstronomer
...and the acceleration is simply the speed of light (the speed of the electro-magnetic spectrum) squared.

Homework assignment:

What units is speed measured in?

In what units is acceleration measured in?

If you square a speed, what units is speed measured in?

79 posted on 10/02/2005 12:12:23 PM PDT by longshadow
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To: GummyIII

I'm quite surprised that the thread became so big without being in a sidebar.


80 posted on 10/02/2005 12:16:19 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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