I understand it’s “energy equals mass times the speed of light squared”, but it’s always portrayed as the most significant equation.
Is this just because Einstein was a popular figure, or is it particularly important in understanding the universe? Moreso than other equations?
In: Physics
Because if shows a fundamental truth about the universe that was completely unknown before, AND, it is a very simple equation. Take a look at other physics equations and you will see that they are (for the most part) very complicated.
People tend to value elegance and simplicity and when such an important piece of knowledge can be expressed in such a simple equation, that’s a big deal.
Also, it’s not simply that mass can be converted into energy, it works the other way around as well. There was a paper that blew up just last week which showed that energy can be converted into matter as well. It analyzed a lot of data from particle accelerators and showed that there are times when photons convert into electron proton pairs (I think, I’m solid on the electron iffy on the proton. It was definitely a pair).
That’s equally mindblowing, that photons, light, can, under the right circumstances, turn into matter.
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