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E=mc2 Definition | Explained |Define

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Humanity's most notorious equation is mathematical script for mass-energy equivalence. A body's mass can be considered a direct measure of the energy contained therein and vice versa. If an object is moving with respect to another perspective then this equation for Energy E is affected by a relativistic conversion factor; this comes into play using a relativistic Mass represented in the equation as 'm.' The other term in the equation is the constant 'c' that represents the speed of light in a vacuum that is, according to theory, a constant 299,792,458 m/s.

This most fundamental equation of modern physics derives its philosophical basis from the union of two even more rudimentary physical ideas. There are namely, the conservation of mass and energy that are described as follows. The conservation of mass ensures that a system will generate no variation in mass over a period of time given that the system is closed. In other words, the conservation of mass implies that it can not be created nor can it be destroyed. However, as experience shows the particular form that it takes can change. Following along these same lines, the second general idea that upholds E=mc2 is the conservation of system wide energy. Thus, it should be understood that in a physical system energy can neither be created nor destroyed but the form of energy, like mass before it, can change.

These two ideas are united in the mass-energy expression E=mc2 that had its first brief discovery in the late 17th early and 18th century. At that time, it was the German scholar Gottfried Leibniz who formulated an equation incredibly similar to the ubiquitous E=mc2. Leibniz a scholar par excellence equation represents the Energy of motion as the summation of all masses multiplied by their respective velocities squared or E=mv2. This expression bears an uncanny resemblance to its later cousin. It should be understood that it is derived from other principles and does not completely parallel everything indicated by E=mc2. However, Mr. Leibniz's attempt to derive a mass energy relationship does demonstrate that these ideas predated the modern Einsteinian, Lorentzian E=mc2.

E=mc2 | Albert Einstein

This expression appears tangentially in Einstein's 1905 work "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" Based upon the work of Heinrich Hertz and the equations of Maxwell, the document did not describe a general derivation for E=mc2. In other words, it did not provide a comprehensive description of mass energy equivalence starting from the equations of motion that in this case would be the Lorentz Equations.  Rather the 'miracle' paper was torn apart by the famous scientist Planck and others who noticed deficiencies in the original formulation. In fact, it expresses the results of a simple analysis of pulses of light to the right and to the left of a radiating object given equal energy pulses of L/2 in opposite directions. Passing the equations through momentum computations the change in an object's lost mass is the energy L/(c^2). Thus, Einstein, did not originally provide a generalized, decisive and conclusive description of mass-energy equivalence.

E=mc2 | Neutrinos, CERN, Light Speed

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