From: John Beckett 

Robert Comer  wrote in message
news::
> For the thousandth time it seems, E=MC2 is *just* and equation that
> either describes how much energy results if you convert X amount of
> mass, or it describes how much mass can result from a given energy
> input if you could convert it.  Both of these being perfect
> conversions...
>
> It describes nothing else about a nuclear explosion and a nuclear
> explosion is no proof of E=MC2 because it's *****NOT***** a perfect
> conversion.

Thanks for engaging the argument. Is it really a thousand times?

It's certainly true that for people like us, the exact formula relating to
energy-mass conversion is irrelevant. So I suppose you say that E=mc2 is
not related to a nuclear explosion because there would be lots of other
equations that, if true, would result in a spectacular bang.

I don't think that pov does justice to Einstein's work. I have always
regretted not studying physics hard enough to get more than a glimmer of
insight into special relativity, but as I understand it, Einstein sat in a
room and wondered about what explanation could account for what was known
in science around 1900.

Einstein was cheeky enough to suggest that the speed of light would appear
to be the same to any observer. From that ONE axiom (plus the hope that the
laws of physics would apply everywhere), he came up with E=mc^2. That
conclusion is an elegant consequence of what is probably the
second-greatest intellectual achievement in human history.

A lot of the consequences of special relativity were untestable for many
years. In particular, there was no generally understandable proof of E=mc2
until the first nuclear explosion that managed to convert a minuscule
amount of matter into an enormous amount of energy.

I guess you're saying that the first nuclear explosion didn't actually
prove the precise details of the E=mc2 equation, but it sure did prove the
general point, and it showed that the special theory of relativity was more
than "just a theory".

John

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