einstein

[micka]

some people say e=mc2 is the potential power of matter some say it is to do with time and space- theory of relativity, which is true?

[jno]

post this one over in Science micka you'll get a lot more help there. The equation has to do with transformation between mass and energy. This and relativity both have to do with the way matter is in flux, rather than fixed and constant as earlier scientists believed... but I'm guessing.

[jake-the-peg]

this equation first appeared as part of what was basically the appendix to the special theory of relativity.

This deals with the the way things like time and space behave when you get close to the speed of light.

The later General Theory of Relativity was to do with how these things were affected by extreme gravity.

In some nuclear reactions more matter goes in than comes out. Some matter appears to be distroyed. It is actually converted to energy. This energy is the e the lost mass is the m and the c is the speed of light. c squared is roughly 100,000,000,000,000,000.

So you see you only have to distroy a tiny amount of matter to create a gigantic amount of energy.

It is the basis of both nuclear weapons and the sun

[fo3nix]

one of the major things about the equation is that before it, people had thought mass and energy to be totally different things. this equation says they are the same (albeit with some conversion factor, c)