A Brief History of Relativity (Cont.)

Part 4 E=MC^2

As time progresses in Einstein's year, his theory of relativity starts reach some critical acclaim within the world of science which eventually gets him the Nobel Prize in 1921.With the establishment of Einstein's foot now firmly planted, he starts to express his ideas more rampant throughout the world. With the theory of relativity, their was one consequence of the relativity which is due to the relation of mass and energy. As a result, Einstein postulates an idea, or in this case an equation known as E=MC^2, which inevitable leaves its mark not only on the world of physics, but as the world as a whole. This equation explains that since the speed of light appears the same to everyone, then nothing within our known universe can move faster than the speed of light. To break this idea and equation even further down, is that when an object uses energy to accelerate any process, than the mass must increase as well, which in turn makes the object more difficult to accelerate. Now, to accelerate an object to the speed of light then, there must be an infinite amount of energy. What Einstein done with this equation is that it explains that mass and energy are equivalent, and all that is needed to be done is to square the speed of light. His equation showed a very important relationship with mass and energy which ultimately lead to one of the most dangerous weapons known to mankind. As a result of the discovery of nuclear fission, the atomic bomb was created through the Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of two bombs that would not only end World War II, but also completely obliterate the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Since Einstein was the man behind the discovery of the relationship between mass and energy, he was heavily blamed for the destruction.  However, as quoted from the book "that is like blaming Newton for causing airplanes to crash because he discovered gravity" and in all actuality, Einstein never participated with the Manhattan Project and he was utterly horrified by the droppings of the atomic bombs over the cites.

This video gives a brief description over the equation and really explains the concept well. Check it out!