What does E=MC2 mean

Question

What does E=MC2 mean

Answer 1

The idea is that matter is simply a very compact form of energy.  The equivalent energy packed in matter is found by the formula

E = m c^2

(where c, the speed of light, is the coefficient that makes the units come out right).

Example:

The sun's power comes from the fusion of hydrogen into helium (at the core, where the temperature is 15 million Kelvin).

It takes 4 hydrogen nuclei (1 proton each) to form one helium nucleus (two protons, two neutrons).  In the process, two positrons (anti-electrons) and two neutrinos are formed.

The total mass of 4 hydrogen nuclei is a tiny bit more than the sum of all the resulting particles (the helium nuclei, the anti-electrons and the neutrinos).

The difference is very small at the atomic scale, but a large number of hydrogen nuclei are fused every second, something like 3.4 x 10^38 (if you prefer:  340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,... hydrogen nuclei per second -- that 340 followed by 36 zeros).

Every second.

Still, the Sun has plenty of hydrogen and can keep up this pace for another 5 billion years or so.

The tiny missing mass multiplied by this large number of nuclei comes out to around 4.25 million tonnes of lost mass.

Every second, the fusion of that much hydrogen into helium causes the loss of 4,250,000,000 kg (9,900,000,000 pounds, if it were weighed on Earth) of matter that finds itself changed into energy.

E = m c^2

E = 4,250,000,000 kg * (300,000,000 m/s)^2 = 3.825 x 10^26 kg m^2 / s^2

The beauty of the international units is that everything works well.

1 watt is a flux of energy of 1 Joule per second.

1 joule of energy is equivalent to 1 kg m^2 / s^2

Therefore, the energy output of the Sun is 3.825 x 10^26 W

(I have used round figures here; the real output of the Sun is a bit more because the amount of matter that disappears is a tiny bit more than 4-and-a-quarter million tonnes.)

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Also, if you were able to pack a lot of energy in a tiny volume, you would be able to create matter.  This is done in some accelerators.

When atomic particles are accelerated to extremely high speeds, then smashed together (in atom "smashers"), the energy of the collision can create new particles (they are not new to nature, they are new to us because we had never been able to study them before).

Answer 2

E= Energy

M= Mass

C= Constant speed of light in a vacuum.

So essentially they energy of something is equal to mass times 89,875,517,873,681,764.

Answer 3

Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

In a nutshell.

Einstein's theory of relativity.

Answer 4

Basically, it means that all stuff (What the scientists call matter, the M in the formula stands for the mass or weight of the matter.) can be broken down to produce vast amounts of energy (The E in the formula.). The C2 in the formula stands for the speed of light multiplied by itself and is a very very large number indeed. This large number is multiplied by the mass M and the product of that multiplication is the amount of energy E which has been produced.

It is this formula which gives us our understanding of how the atomic bomb works and how nuclear reactors in power plants function.

The formula also tells us what happens when you fuse a couple of the smallest particles of stuff together with incredible force. Again a huge amount of energy is released and this is what happens in a hydrogen bomb and incidentally also in the centre of the Sun. That gives all life the heat and light it needs to exist, so you could say that this is probably the most important formula which has ever been written.

Answer 5

hope this other questions wut u wanna no

Answer 6

its Physics

E(energy)=M(mass)C(speed of light, aka:celeritas)2(squared)

Answer 7

Hope tis helps:

Answer 8

The energy contained in a mass m is given by e = mc^2 where c is the speed of light/ Here's a good article:

http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/fil...

Answer 9

Um...Mariah Carey's semi-new album?

Oh, and Energy equals Mass times the Speed of Light.

See the site in my sources for more info.

Answer 10

Mariah Carey's CD

Emancipation= Mariah Carey to the 2nd degree

or if you're asking about the real Physics:

E=MC2

= 0.111 x 300,000,000 x 300,000,000

= 10,000,000,000,000,000 Joules

Answer 11

Mass-energy equivalence.

Matter can be coverted into energy and vice versa.  

Both matter and energy exhibit wave-particle duality.

They can be considered one entity: matter-energy. The total amount of matter-energy in the entire universe must always remain the same. It can not be created nor destroyed only converted into one form or the other.

Answer 12

Mariah Carey's CD

Answer 13

it's the formula for turning mass into energy

Answer 14

energy = mass times the velocity of light squared, this is made by the famous albert einstein, and its original name was l/mv, since einstein learned that the first formula is wrong he made the second one which is e=mc2, hope this helps.    

Answer 15

The equation states that matter traveling at the speed of light becomes energy.

Albert Einstein derived it in 1905 and explained it in the paper "Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?"

This equation is most often used to explain the destructive capability of a nuclear bomb, which converts matter into energy, but it has many other applications as well.

It's usually written as follows: E=mc2 (the expression c2 means c squared not c times 2); where E=energy, m=mass and c=the speed of light in a vacuum (186,282 miles per second). You may be wondering why Einstein used a C instead of an L to stand for light. C stands for the Latin word "celeratis", meaning swiftness.

Answer 16

E= energy

M= mass

C= the speed of light in a vacuum

2= pie or squared

Answer 17

The explanations above are right but may still be a little confusing until you're familiar with it.

It's very simple though. All it means is that a very small amount of mass may be converted into a VERY LARGE amount of energy.

Einstein was supposed to have said that the true test of intelligence is the ability to explain a difficult thing to a child. And this video illustrates that to me. After all, I can understand it ;) I'm not a child but also not a rocket scientist.

Why don't we ask the man himself?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHJKx7VgN...

Answer 18

It is Einstein's equivalence formula which resulted from his special relativity experiments.

energy=mass times the speed of light in a vacuum squared.

Answer 19

Energy = Mass x the Constant(speed of light)squared

Answer 20

Hi Marielle,

Einstein proved that mass is a concentrated form of energy.

Before Einstein, most scientists thought that energy and mass were utterly separate, unrelated quantities.  Energy could never be created or destroyed.  Mass could never be created or destroyed.

Einstein demonstrated this view to be mistaken.  Under certain conditions, mass could be converted into energy and vice versa.

How much energy equals how much mass?  A little matter contains, highly concentrated, a colossal amount of energy.

Physicists measure energy in joules per kilogram.  One gram of matter = 1 joule per kilogram times

300,000,000 x300,000,000

= a monumental 90,000,000,000,000,000 joules/kg.  

This figure is meaningless to ordinary folks like us.  To place it in perspective, one gram, about the weight of a dollar bill, contains in concentrated form about 25 million kilowatt hours of electricity, if some way could be found to convert the mass of a dollar bill into energy.  Of course, we currently lack the means to do that, but if we did our energy problems would be solved.

Atomic bombs and nuclear energy are a small manifestation of this principle.  In a nuclear bomb, a quantity of unstable nuclear material, such as plutonium, is changed into another element, converting a small quantity of its mass into energy.  As you know, even this relatively small transmutation can level a city.  

Atomic energy is just the tip of the iceberg, though.  According to Einstein's principle of E=MC squared, if somehow we could turn ALL of the matter in a dollar bill completely into energy, and not merely a small number of unstable atoms, a dollar bill would possess the energy potential of a Hiroshima-sized bomb.

Answer 21

Energy=Mass times The speed of Light squared