Why is Einstein’s E=MC2 such a big deal that everyone’s heard of it? How important was that discovery actually, is it like in the top 3 most important discoveries of all time or is it kind of overhyped?

Question

Why is Einstein’s E=MC2 such a big deal that everyone’s heard of it? How important was that discovery actually, is it like in the top 3 most important discoveries of all time or is it kind of overhyped?

In: 1393

Answer 1

One of Einstein’s big contributions was “the speed of light is constant”. That little constant, c, was itself revolutionary. Why was that surprising? Imagine you throw a baseball pretty consistently at 50 mph. Next suppose you’re on a train that’s pulling away from the platform at 15 mph and you throw the ball in the direction the train is moving. To someone on the train with you, it will appear to move 50 mph. To someone on the platform, the ball is moving 65 mph.

But light is different. It has the same speed for all observers.

The general idea of “matter is just a special form of energy” was also revolutionary. And Einstein’s theories of relativity provide the reasoning for why the ratio between energy and mass is c^2.

Answer 2

One of Einstein’s big contributions was “the speed of light is constant”. That little constant, c, was itself revolutionary. Why was that surprising? Imagine you throw a baseball pretty consistently at 50 mph. Next suppose you’re on a train that’s pulling away from the platform at 15 mph and you throw the ball in the direction the train is moving. To someone on the train with you, it will appear to move 50 mph. To someone on the platform, the ball is moving 65 mph.

But light is different. It has the same speed for all observers.

The general idea of “matter is just a special form of energy” was also revolutionary. And Einstein’s theories of relativity provide the reasoning for why the ratio between energy and mass is c^2.