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E=mc^2 Verified In Quantum Chromodynamic Calculation
chirishnique and other readers sent in a story in AFP about a heroic supercomputer computation that has verified Einstein's most famous equation at the level of subatomic particles for the first time. "A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France's Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world's mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms. ... [T]he mass of gluons is zero and the mass of quarks is only five per cent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95 per cent? The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons. ... [E]nergy and mass are equivalent, as Einstein proposed in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905." Update: 11/21 15:50 GMT by
KD : New Scientist has a slightly more technical look at the accomplishment.
Not really the same thing. Einstein derived it for non-quantum objects (ie large ones, or ones for which we can otherwise ignore quantum effects). This team verified it for quantum objects. This is interesting because the two theories don't mesh well -- one works at small scales and the other at large scales. It's not a theory of everything, because it doesn't touch gravity, but it's important to know where precisely the region the two are in conflict is. This calculation helps map that border.
I wouldn't say that. Not in this case. Just because the equation is "works" in one scale (non-quantum), doesn't mean it works at ALL scales.
Newtonian Mechanics at Relativistic speeds comes is a good example of that.
Newtonian Mechanics is wrong at any speed. Just the error becomes more noticeable near light speed.
F=MA, yet a 1kg mass accelerated by 10 neutons for 1 second from stationary, will NOT be traveling at 10 m/s
It will be traveling just, very slightly slower....
Anyhow, I thought the actual thought experiment that leads to the derivation of e=mc2, (the one with a photon and a box), assumes the existance of the 'photon' a quantum scale particle.