E=mc2 : A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

by Bodanis, David (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780425181645
• ISBN10: 0425181642
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Berkley Trade

Summary

Generations have grown up knowing that Albert Einstein's equation E=mc[superscript 2] changed the shape of our world, but never understanding what it actually means, why it was so significant, and how it informs our daily lives today-governing, as it does, everything from the atomic bomb to a television's cathode ray tube to the carbon dating of prehistoric paintings. In this book, David Bodanis writes the "biography" of one of the greatest scientific discoveries in history, made a century ago-that the realms of energy and matter are inescapably linked. Through his skill as a writer and teacher, he turns a seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic human achievement and an uncommonly good story. Book jacket.

Author Biography

David Bodanis taught for many years a survey of intellectual history at the University of Oxford

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
Birth
Bern Patent Office, 1905	p. 3
Ancestors of E=mc[superscript 2]
E Is for Energy	p. 11
=	p. 23
m Is for mass	p. 27
c Is for celeritas	p. 37
[characters not reproducible]	p. 55
The Early Years
Einstein and the Equation	p. 73
Into the Atom	p. 93
Quiet in the Midday Snow	p. 100
Adulthood
Germany's Turn	p. 117
Norway	p. 134
America's Turn	p. 143
8:16 A.M.-Over Japan	p. 163
Till the End of Time
The Fires of the Sun	p. 173
Creating the Earth	p. 184
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