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100th Anniversary of E=mc^2
Starker_Kull writes "E=mc^2 was published as part of Einstein's theory of Special Relativity 100 years ago today." From the article: "In 1905, it was final proof of the genius and imagination of a young German-born scientist who had yet to land a university post. It seems so simple: three letters standing for energy, mass, and the speed of light, brought together with the tightness of a soundbite."
You'd think they'd have improved on it by now. Something along the lines of E=mc^3, or something like that.
It only seems like a 100 years...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
if i remember corectly E = MC^2 stands for Enrgy = More Chocolate squares
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Since it hasn't been disproved it is timeless. Einstein would disagree.
The main reason 2005 was choosen. Have you {{{hugged}}} your local physicists this year?
1905 was the most productive year for any physicist since Isaac Newton's golden year of 1666. In 1905 not only did Einstein publish on Special Relativity, but also on Brownian Motion (thus finally providing irrefutable evidence of atoms) and laying grounding for the field of statistical mechanics, and the photoelectric effect (claiming the idea of the photon) and laying much of the foundation of quantum mechanics.
Converting energy into matter does not sound very simple to me. I'm not even sure I entirly understood it when I was studying it.
Well, its still only a theory. There are other theories that are just as valid. I for one, still do not believe atomic bombs are atoms being split. It does not make sense to me that one something as perfect as an atom could ever be split. I believe that atomic blasts are God lighting his own farts. Or maybe just an alien lighting his own farts. (Maybe hedging the source of the farts will let me slip this theory into public schools.)
The American Physical Society's Timeline of Physics in the 20th Century
1990-2000s:
1989 - 1992 "The cosmic background radiation is explored." (Never effect me)
1990 "The Hubble Space Telescope becomes operational." (Never effect me)
1998 - 2008 "The solar neutrino puzzle may be solved." (Never effect me)
1998 - 2008 "Weather and climate predictions come of age." (Weather Forecasting?)
1999 - 2009 "Simulation of Brain Functions in Real Time." (Neural Networks have been around since the 60's)
2000 - 2010 "Gravitational waves open a new window on the universe." (Still just General Relativity?)
2000 - 2010 "Photonics competes with electronics. (Just a prediction, hasn't actually happened yet)
Compare this with the 1930s
1938 - 1939 Atomic Nuclear fission is observed in uranium.
1939 The first FM (frequency modulation) radio station is built.
1939 The first helicopter designed for mass production flies.
1936 Sound is recorded on Magnetic Tape
So basically I want to know where is my flying car, d**mit!
"affect me", not "effect me". Things "affect" you. You can "effect" a change in something. But (generally), the terms are not interchangable.
Whatever, I won't even bother w/ AC, feel free to flame me. As for your overall point... Well, yeah, as time goes by it gets tougher to get a Nobel prize in these fields, but I think developments of higher temperature superconductors, better understanding of laminar and turbulent flow, discoveries of "dark energy", etc. are neat things, and have happened in my lifetime.
"It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward
I see comments to the effect that much of the big breakthrough is behind us. But think of how the world looked to the nerds of 1905: There was "just a few little details" to be worked out about the atom, why for instance did it radiate and how. The universe was euclidian and straight lines, by god, were just straight. few doubted that you could, though it would be costly, know the exact position of everything and calculate the future positions. A nagging little absence of an aether, to wave for electromagnetic waves as water or air do for their waves. But mostly, we were pretty sure we had it all but figured out. Take heart nerds. We have ALWAYS percieved ourselves as being at that point on the great learning curve of omniscience and we probably always will...its a comfortable place to hang out.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Einstein was singularity stupid,
and you are singularity stupid.
"Born Cubic, THINK CUBIC",
you rotate a 4 corner stage life.
Singularity educated humans
are not intelligent.
The universe does not exist,
except as opposites - with a
zero value existence. Add
the opposites together and
the universe ceases to exist.
http://www.timecube.com/
three letters standing for energy, mass, and the speed of light, brought together with the tightness of a soundbite.
Which is my problem with it. Everyone gushes and coos over E=mc^2, like it was the point of Special Relativity. Like if you understand E=mc^2, you understand relativity. It's not. It's a lemma. An "oh, by the way, since we have spent all this effort proving this other, main point, then, with only a trivial amount of extra work, we can prove this too."
Even when you think about it, the big deal about E=mc^2 isn't the equation either - it's the concept that mass and energy are *the same thing* not just "interconvertable" but *the same*. As in the mass of the proton is not from the just mass of the quarks, but in large part from their interaction energy. The c^2 is just a conversion factor. Sure it's big, but besides that it's just a conversion factor.
I'm not knocking E=mc^2 - it's a great discovery. I'm just annoyed at the general public for thinking that E=mc^2 is what relativity is all about. Our "soundbite culture" and all of that. Something deeply profound, interesting and amazing about the fundamental charachter of our universe is reduced to "E=mc^2! Aren't I smart!" glibness.