E=mc2????????????

Question

Can someone explain to me in lay man's terms what this

formula means?

Answer 1

Energy = mass * speed of light * speed of light.  Basically, it means that matter can be turned into energy (say, by burning fuel) and energy can be turned into matter (say, through pair-production).  This equation tells you how much energy you can get out of the matter and how much matter you can get out of the energy.

Answer 2

E=mc^2

E= energy

m= mass

c=speed of light in a vacuum

Basically it shows that energy and mass are equivalent. But as the value of c^2 is HUGE, you need ALOT of energy to make mass. Conversely, a lot of energy can be released from a relatively small amount of mass...this is what nuclear bombs and nuclear powerstations do.

Answer 3

Energy= Mass * C, the speed of light in space, squared. It means that if you multiply the speed of light squared by the mass of the object, you will get the amount of energy released.

Answer 4

Emancipation = Mariah Carey ^2

Answer 5

the above answers are true, Einsteins equation is a elegant way of describing the conversion of matter to energy and vice versa

The important point to make is that the equation also describes that mass and energy become interchangeable at the speed of light, and can be freely converted from one to another.

However as time slows slows as you get closer to the speed of light at the point where matter and energy become interchangable, time would stop...... buts thats a discussion for another question :-)

Answer 6

This is Einstein's famous equation. He showed that mass and energy can be transformed from one to the other, so in a sense they're the same thing.

The c^2 is a constant of proportionality. It tells you how much energy you get for a given mass, or vice versa.