What does e = mc square mean?

Question

I watched I show on it but it was a long time ago

Answer 1

The important idea captured by this equation are that mass (m) and energy (E) are two forms of the same thing, differing by a "conversion factor" equal to the square of the speed of light (c).  This was quite shocking to scientists at the time.

Conceptually this equation gives the amount of energy (E) that would be created by completely converting any mass (m) into energy.  In reality, to completely convert most "masses" (a penny, for instance) to energy would require conditions (such as extreme temperature) that we can not actually create.

Answer 2

energy of an object = its mass times the speed of light squared

(square speed of light before multiplying by mass)

Answer 3

energy=massxthe speed of light its a mathematical equation by albert einstein showing the realationship of an objects mass to its energy to travel at the speed of light. basically how fast you hav to go to become energy. but nothing can travel at the speed of light soo....

Answer 4

An object with mass has energy.

All forms of energy have mass (in both the inertial and gravitational senses--energy weighs something and it takes a push to move it).

So energy and mass are the same exact thing.*  We just use different units to measure them (in MKS anyway).  The square of the speed of light is the conversion factor we use to convert our units of mass to our units of energy.

* Just a footnote--because energy and mass (as traditionally understood) are the exact same thing, we took the liberty to redefine mass to mean an object's energy in its own rest frame--it's rest mass.  So the full equation using modern notation is:

E = sqrt (m^2c^4 + p^2c^2) = mc^2 / sqrt (1 - (v/c)^2),

which, as desired, reduces to the original for a particle at rest.

Bill--you are correct about not being to get at all the rest mass energy (at a macroscopic scale anyway)--until the Angels & Demons bomb becomes reality.  Antimatter/matter annhilation releases ALL the mass as energy.

Answer 5

lots of wrong answers

correct formula is:

E = mc² where c = 3*10⁸(speed of light)

What this says is that mass and energy are equivalent, and IF you could convert an object completely to energy, the energy is given by this formula. And since the speed of light is a very large number, c² is huge, so a tiny amount of mass would give you a huge amount of energy.

Luckily we can't convert all of a mass to energy. Nuclear bombs convert a tiny percentage of their mass to energy, and look at what they can do.

Answer 6

The famous Einstein relationship for energy

E = mc^2

includes both the kinetic energy and rest mass energy for a particle.

The relativistic energy expression E = mc^2 is a statement about the energy an object contains as a result of its mass and is not to be construed as an exception to the principle of conservation of energy. Energy can exist in many forms, and mass energy can be considered to be one of those forms.

If the particle is at rest, then the energy is expressed

E = (m0)c^2

"Energy is the ultimate convertable currency."

(Brian Greene in The Elegant Universe)

Answer 7

formula for energy based on mass or something.

Answer 8

e=energy released or converted

m=mass of the object A

c sqaure= speed of light* speed of light

it tells us HOW MUCH ENERGY IS RELEASE if we accelerate or push an object of mass 1kg at square of speed's velocity

so thats a lot of energy

e=1*3.6*10e8

ie e=360000000 energy

from 1kg of a substance