William Atkins
Saturday, 22 November 2008 21:34
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
European physicists confirm that Albert Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence equation is correct using super-fast supercomputers. Does this mean that Einstein is equivalent to a supercomputer?
Back in the 1900s, German-American theoretical physicist Albert Einstein hypothesized that mass could be converted into energy, and vice versa, and that its equation was
E = mc2.
He published his formula (in a slightly different form than what we are used to) in 1905 within the paper "
Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?”. (pdf file)
That is, any mass has a particular energy value associated with it, or
energy (E) equals
mass (m) times the
speed of light (c), in a vacuum, squared (2).
According to the United Press International (UPI) article “
Scientists confirm Einstein's e=mc2,” the German newspaper
Deutsche Wells reported on Friday, November 21, 2008 that
Laurent Lellouch lead a team of French, German, and Hungarian scientists in confirming the famous equation.
They used the supercomputers at the National Center for Scientific Research (
NCRS), or Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in Paris, France.
The NCRS press release stated of the Einstein equation,
"Until now, this has been a hypothesis.” [Deutsche Wells]
According to the API article,
“France's National Center for Scientific Research said the computations the scientists worked out involved envisioning space and time as part of a four-dimensional crystal lattice....”
Page two delves a little bit into the life of Dr. Einstein and the Deutsche Wells article that originally ran the announcement.
