Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: simeonie on 03/01/2006 22:59:13
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Ok. I know that some people on this forum are really clever. So could someone explain to me exactly what E=MC^2 is about please.
I know that it means energy = the mass times the speed of light squared. But what is that all about? Does it mean the enegy that something contains is the mass of it times the speed of light squared?
If so then still it doesnt explain much to me. I mean what Units do you measure the mass in? Grams, killograms, tons? and the enery? what unit? And also the speed of light? Miles per hour? meteres per hour? what?
Please someone help me I am really curious. And when I do know what it means which I am sure if someone answers I soon will know, do we know how to actually make the energy? Please help and poor little boy on a quest for knowledge. Thankies
Simon
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Ok woah! I have looked on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E=mc%5E2 and it explains a little to me. What it means. And the Units it applies to. But I still don't know how to turn the mass into energy. Does anyone or don't we know. And if no one knows then how is it proven that it works?
Oh and I also read that E=MC^2 states that nothing with mass can go faster that the speed of light. Why? and How does it prove that?
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what Units do you measure the mass in? Grams, killograms, tons? and the enery? what unit? And also the speed of light? Miles per hour? meteres per hour? what?
FOR THE UNITS OF MEASUREMENTS CLICK ON LINKS BELOW
http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/dictunit/dictunit.htm
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html
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But I still don't know how to turn the mass into energy. Does anyone or don't we know. And if no one knows then how is it proven that it works?
Thankfully Converting mass into energy isn't easy but the best example's have got to be the sun, then there's nuclear power generation, and of course there's always the nuclear bombs.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/legacy.html
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html
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Oh and I also read that E=MC^2 states that nothing with mass can go faster that the speed of light. Why? and How does it prove that?
Its quite easy to understand but can take a bit of explaining and ive got the flu,[:(]i will try to get round to it later unless someone else would like to help and explain before me.
Michael HAPPY NEW YEAR (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi11.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fa186%2Fukmicky%2Fparty-smiley-012.gif&hash=844994fd61764508c533537d6874634d)
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Originally posted by simeonie
Oh and I also read that E=MC^2 states that nothing with mass can go faster that the speed of light. Why? and How does it prove that?
To fill in the gap that UKMicky's flu (hopefully short lived) has prevented him from expanding upon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
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Given an object of invariant mass m0 traveling at velocity u the energy and momentum are given by
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fmath%2Fa%2F4%2F5%2Fa4592f0c78a3265eca17dc18ac8fb04e.png&hash=c3390db2b3e3c97025b5829ff0d2c40f)
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fmath%2Fb%2Fb%2F1%2Fbb15aa54875624c681524aec44191870.png&hash=b53bf27db60f065fb8c265733f54e9bd)
where #947; (the Lorentz factor) is given by
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fmath%2F8%2Fe%2F1%2F8e1c2250c39f8a196dddbda35b1bcdce.png&hash=7cc1ffaa80329595f91bf3300f7a73b2)
As you can see, if u (velocity) becomes equal to c (the speed of light) then the lorenz factor becomes zero, and both energy and momentum become infinite, and thus impossible (i.e. even to reach the speed of light, you would need to input infinite energy, so absolutely no hope of exceeding it).