On Einstein's Famous Equation and How It Changed the World

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On Einstein's Famous Equation and How It Changed the World


Einstein's famous equation describing mass-energy equivalence has propelled mankind into a world far advance than a century ago. It is a very far-reaching scientific achievement it went beyond science and pervaded almost every other field in the intellectual landscape. Let's take a look at this equation that helped end World War II.

Einstein's famous equation, known as the mass-energy equivalence, is the most famous and celebrated equation in all of science. Those symbols appearing in it are E, which stands for energy, m for mass, and c for the speed of light which covers a distance of around 300 million meters per second, the fastest in the universe. At large, the equation tells us that mass and energy are the same stuff, and how much energy is contained in a given mass, or vice versa. Quantitatively and specifically, it shows how enormous is the magnitude of energy locked in atoms, and as shown by the formula, the amount of the energy equivalence of any amount of mass is obtained by multiplying it with the square of the speed of light.

With science above and beyond, the equation has pervaded almost every phase of intellectual and cultural facets of the general public. Saul Bellow and T.S. Elliot are just among the world's leading writers whose works bear the influence of Albert Einstein. Across the world, his famous equation went out of science textbooks to scientifically embellish the outside landscape, reminding people from all walks of life as to how awesome is the weight of the role of this simple, yet so far-reaching algebraic expression to science and mankind.

This equation that would later helped end World War II was not derived by Einstein on purpose; it simply popped out as one of the terms of his other longer and lofty equations that laid down the foundations of the Special Theory of Relativity. But Einstein, whose mind was always prepared, quick, brilliant, and highly intuitive, easily picked it up from his mathematical outlines and linked it to the world of the atoms without qualms; it is astonishing generalization for the Special Theory of Relativity was primarily intended to put some modifications on Newtonian Mechanics for motions of bodies and whose speeds approach the speed of light.

Despite antagonisms Einstein was receiving from some of his peers in the scientific community, he prevailed. The first two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were built largely on the basis of his famous equation. Having convinced President Roosevelt and his momentous signing of the historic resolution that led to the creation of the bomb was nevertheless, meekly admitted by Einstein as the greatest mistake of his life. World War II, however, was quickly ended after Japan's surrender, just days after absorbing the most horrible bombing in all history. Henceforth, people has been winning the Nobel Peace Prizes for their humanitarian campaigns that vehemently denounced all suspicious attempts leading to the inexcusable repetition of the grim and immedicable Hiroshima incident. Otherwise, we imperil our very own humanity to extinction.

With all those highly objectionable and sinister drawbacks now seemingly thwarted, Einstein's equation continues to serve mankind in such profound fashion. In its absence, our understanding of the unseen world of the atoms would have never advanced into what are known and on hand today. Our capability to harness nuclear energy that powers many of our homes and modern industries is completely associated to what can be considered as the equation of the 20th century, if not of our civilization. The concealed workings at the core of our Sun and all the rest of the far distant stars that are scattered across the infinite stretch of the universe became clearly understood in the light of this equation - a gargantuan leap for mankind and the oldest but ever fascinating science of astronomy. Unquestionably, this equation enshrined Einstein into the altars of immortality. And being of Jewish descent, he was once offered the first presidency of the newly independent state of Israel in 1948. Remarkably, his appealing statement of refusal was plain and simple, "Politics is for the meantime, equations are forever."