How did einstein derive his famous equation, e=mc^2?
396356
After a few drinks one night, he slipped and fell.  On his way down he thought, how much is this gonna hurt ?!  In a split second, he conjectured E=MC^2.  Later, while bandaging the cut on his head, he realized his calculations for tensor gravity......
1073443
e=mc2 is the Eienstein's famous equation of relativity. This equation only applies to very tiny particles, who can move with the speed of light. 'c' here is the speed of light which is a constant quantity. 'm' is the mass of the tiny parrticle.\nWhen a tiny particle moves with a velocity which is the square of velocity of light, it produces energy.\n\nSo, you might wonder why the solar energy is so poweful that we can even run a car.
401395
Way to go Arbitrage!  Oh to funny guy- yeah we get that E=MC2  IS a formula- but if you really want to "get it" Check out Maxwells equations. It's a great time to be a science nerd with all this info pouring in now! Figure it out & go up one on Albert!
424351
That is exactly the question Einstein asked himself that led to the special theory of relativity in 1905.\n\nEssentially, "the-dude"'s answer above is right.  \n\nHe wrote an excellent little book explaning how it (and general relativity) works.  It was written for college kids who don't know much about Physics, so if you have some basic math you can understand it pretty easily.\n\nI highly suggest reading it...\n\nHey...I found it below...enjoy the read.
342507
E=mc^2 is a version of Einstein's famous Relativity equation. Specifically, it means that Energy is equal to Mass times the speed of light squared. In essence, it states that there is an equivalence between mass and energy. This simple statement has many profound implications... such as no object with mass can ever go faster than the speed of light!\n\nThe Energy:\nEnergy is measured in joules (J). How much energy is one joule? Not very much really. If you pick up a large apple and raise it above your head you will have used around one joule of energy in the process. On the other hand we use up huge amounts of energy every time we switch on a light. A 100 watt light bulb uses 100 joules of energy every second, i.e. one watt is one joule per second.\n\nThe Mass :\nMass is a measure of a body�s resistance to acceleration. The greater the mass the greater the resistance to acceleration, as anyone who has ever tried to push a heavy object knows. For our purposes here, we can also think of mass as the amount of matter in an object. Mass is measured in kilograms (kg), 1 kg is about the same as 2.2 pounds. Note that we haven�t said what the mass is composed of. In fact it could be anything. It doesn�t matter if we use iron, plastic, wood, rock or gravy. The equation tells us that whatever the mass is it can be turned into energy (whether it is practical to actually do so is another matter and will be dealt with in later pages in this series).\n\nThe speed of light:\nThe speed of light is close to 186,300 miles per second (300,000 km per second). In order to make the equation "work" we need to convert these numbers into units that are more suited to our purposes. In physics, speeds are measured in metres per second. This is usually abbreviated to ms-1; that is "metres times seconds to the minus one". Don�t worry if you don�t understand this notation. We could equally write m/s but using ms-1 makes the mathematics easier in the long run. Likewise, we could either say that the speed of light is 300,000,000 metres per second, or, as is more usual, express the same figure in scientific notation: 3 � 10^8 ms-1.\n I think the mass is dont increase the enrgy is relative with light speed and the mass is constant\nE=constant*C^2\n\nFor a long time the concept of "mass" had been like the concept of energy before the 19th century. There were a lot of different material substances around, but it was not clear how they related to each other, if at all.\n\nAntoine-Laurent Lavoisier, as much as anyone else, first showed that all the seemingly diverse bits of tree and rock and iron on Earth�all the "mass" there is�really were parts of a single connected whole. Through decades of meticulous experiments, aided by his able wife Marie Anne, Lavoisier proved that the substances that fill our universe can be burned, squeezed, shredded, or hammered to bits, but they won't disappear. The different sorts floating around just combine or recombine. The total amount of mass, however, remains the same. This principle�the law of conservation of mass�was one of the great scientific achievements of the 1700s.
648240
E=mc^2\nlooking at this we can first thing about a photon which is said to have zero rest mass b/c it travels at the speed of light.  \nhowever, saying the faster you move the slower you get just isn't correct.  the faster you move the more massive you get.  this equation is really ment to show the link between mass and energy and how saying that mass is always conserved in reactions technically isn't correct.
40471
E=mc^2 \nEnergy = mass * (speed of light)^2, c = the speed of light (approx. 186,000 miles per second).
1055212
E=mc²\n\nOne of the most famous equations in the world, even to non-physicists, the theoretical physics equation E = mc2 states a relationship between energy (E), in whatever form, and mass (m). In this formula, c², the square of the speed of light in vacuum, is the conversion factor required to formally convert from units of mass to units of energy, i.e. the energy per unit mass. In unit specific terms, E (joules) = M (kilograms) multiplied by (299792458 m/s) 2.\n\nMeanings of the formula\nThis formula, which was discovered by Albert Einstein, proposes that when a body has a mass (measured at rest), it has a certain (very large) amount of energy associated with this mass. This is opposed to the Newtonian mechanics, in which a massive body at rest has no kinetic energy, and may or may not have other (relatively small) amounts of internal stored energy (such as chemical energy or thermal energy), in addition to any potential energy it may have from its position in a field of force. That is why a body's rest mass, in Einstein's theory, is often called the rest energy of the body. The E of the formula can be seen as the total energy of the body, which is proportional to the mass when the body is at rest.\n\nConversely, a single photon travelling in empty space cannot be considered to have an effective mass, m, according to the above equation. The reason is that such a photon cannot be measured in any way to be at "rest" and the formula above applies only to single particles when they are at rest. Photons are generally considered to be "massless," (i.e., they have no rest mass or invariant mass) even though they have varying amounts of energy.\n\nThis formula also gives the quantitative relation of the quantity of mass lost from a resting body or an initially resting system, when energy is removed from it, such as in a chemical or a nuclear reaction where heat and light are removed. Then this E could be seen as the energy released or removed, corresponding with a certain amount of mass m which is lost, and which corresponds with the removed heat or light. In those cases, the energy released and removed is equal in quantity to the mass lost, times the speed of light squared. Similarly, when energy of any kind is added to a resting body, the increase in the resting mass of the body will be the energy added, divided by the speed of light squared
690012
the equation is as simple as the elegant and simple universe.the equation means that any type of energy can be converted into mass and vice versa. it means that at speed of light the enrgy becomes infinite(to accelerate it actually)and thus mass becomes infinite(special relativity)provided the generation of light in both the cases. the actual equation is e(kinetic energy)=mc^2/underroot(1-v^2/c^2).the e=mc^2 equation is still applicable for objects moving or stationary meaning that both the equations are true.
62455
Einstein's theory: e(energy)=m(mass)c(speed of light) squared so e=mc2
19768
because, it meant that energy and mass are basically the same thing.  this is pretty contrary to our everyday experience, and in fact it is only a noticeable effect when there are very large energies involved.  so, at the time there was basically no experimental evidence to show that this equation was correct!  nevertheless einstein derived this equation, and the rest of the theory of general relativity, based on mathematical principles alone.  only afterwards were experiments done and he was shown to be right!  \n\nthis is part of the reason einstein is so celebrated as a genius - his correct prediction of the equivalence of energy and mass.
21448
E=mc^2  he was a genius.
83538
E=m*c*c is one of the most famous formulae that exist. It is actually not the full formula, which is \n\nE^2= (m^2)( c^4) + (p^2 )(c^2)\n\nbut for an object at rest, momentum p=0, so we get the familiar equation. Here c is the speed of light in a vacuum, which is the speed limit for our universe (nothing can go faster than the speed of light, according to the special theory of relativity). \n\nThe equation E=mc^2 describes the amount of energy that can be released when matter of mass m is converted to energy E, as in a nuclear power plant or nuclear weapon. \n\nIt arrived as a consequence of Einstein (and other physicists at that time) considering what would happen if you moved very fast, close to the speed of light. This lead to the special theory of relativity, which made all kinds of wild predictions:\n\n1. As you go faster, your mass increases\n2. As you go faster, you shrink, front to back\n3. As you go faster, time travels slower. \n\nThe details get pretty complicated, but I have attached a PBS web site where you can listen to some interviews with famous physicists about what they think about E=mc^2.
418356
If you want somebody to explain the entire theory of relativity....then that will take a while.  For the basic E=mc^2, where E=energy, m=mass, and c=speed of light (3x10^8 m/s), then in simple terms it means that a small amount of mass can give off large amounts of energy.  Another way of seeing it is by saying that mass is simply highly compressed (or smashed together) amounts of energy.
192787
In its original form, the formula is\n\nE^2 = m^2 * c^4 + p^2 * c^2\n\nwhere E is the energy of the particle, m is its rest mass, p is its momentum and c is the speed of light.  If we're only concerned with how much energy is bound up in a certain mass, we say the mass is not moving and its momentum is zero (p = 0).  If this is the case:\n\nE^2 = m^2 * c^4 + (0)^2 * c^2\n\nE^2 = m^2 * c^4\n\nTake the square root of both sides and we get:\n\nE = mc^2\n\nThe full formula, with the momentum term included, works if we want to find the momentum of a photon.  For photons, m=0, so E = pc, or p = E/c.  \n\nEither way, the full form of the mass/energy equivalence formula is useful if something is at rest, or moving with a certain momentum.  E = mc^2  only works if the object is at rest.
294096
The theoretical physics equation E = mc2 states a relationship between energy (E) and mass (m) first formulated by Albert Einstein in his 1905 paper "Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?" ("Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", published in Annalen der Physik on September 27), one of the articles now known as his Annus Mirabilis Papers. \n\nIn the context of special relativity theory, the implication is that energy and mass are, in some sense, equivalent. In practical terms, it led to the atomic bomb. It is one of the best-known equations of all time. Even those who may not explicitly know what it means may have some idea of its meaning through culture. Background and consequencesThe equation resulted from Albert Einstein's inquiry into the dependence of mass on its energy content. The famous result of this inquiry is that the mass of a body is actually a measure of its energy content. To understand the significance of this relationship, compare the electromagnetic force with the gravitational force. In electromagnetism, energy is contained in the fields (electric and magnetic) associated with the force and not in the charges. In gravitation, the energy is contained in the matter itself. It is not a coincidence that mass bends spacetime, while the charges of the other three fundamental forces do not. \n\nRest energy = mass X (speed of light)2\n\n\nAccording to the equation, the total amount of energy obtainable from an object is equivalent to the mass of the object multiplied by the square of the speed of light. \n\nThis equation was crucial in the development of the atomic bomb. By measuring the mass of different atomic nuclei and comparing that number with the mass of the individual protons and neutrons, one can obtain an estimate of the binding energy available within an atomic nucleus. This not only showed that it was possible to release energy by fusion of light nuclei or fission of heavy nuclei, but also to estimate the amount of energy which can be released. \n\nIt is a little known piece of trivia that Einstein originally wrote the equation in the form m = L/c² (with an "L", instead of an "E", representing energy). \n\nA kilogram of mass completely converts into \n89,875,517,873,681,764 joules or \n24,965,421,632 kilowatt-hours or \n21.48076431 megatons of TNT \napproximately 0.0851900643 Quads (quadrillion British thermal units) \n\n\nIt is important to note that practical conversions of mass to energy are seldom 100 percent efficient. One theoretically perfect conversion would result from a collision of matter and antimatter; for most cases, byproducts are produced instead of energy, and therefore very little mass is actually converted. In the equation, mass is energy, but for the sake of clarity, the word converted is used. \n\nAccording to Umberto Bartocci (University of Perugia historian of mathematics), the equation was first published two years earlier by Olinto De Pretto, an industrialist from Vicenza, Italy, though this is not generally regarded as true or important by mainstream historians. Even if De Pretto introduced the formula, it was Einstein who connected it with the theory of relativity. Applicability of the equation E=mc² applies to all objects with mass, as it is a statement that mass is energy. Its applicability to moving objects depends on the definition of mass used in the equation.
951128
according to enistin yes\nthats how he came up with the equation e = mc^2 because he asked him self how would light look if you traveled at the speed of light