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How Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Gives us $\color {red} E=m\,\color {black}c^{\,2}$ and the Atomic Bomb

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2019

Richard Conn Henry*
Affiliation:
Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics & Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles St, Baltimore, Maryland, USA email: henry@jhu.edu
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Abstract

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The LIGO direct-detection of gravitational waves arriving from cosmic sources—now, happily including (as of this meeting!) the merging of two neutron stars—opens a new chapter in our understanding of physics itself: for General Relativity, conceptually so extremely simple, has robustly produced predictions that have invariably been found to be correct when tested. My poster (page 3 of this paper) is intended for high school students who have just learned simple algebra. My derivation of the famous E = mc2 from the Pythagorean Theorem necessarily requires an algebraic expansion that is due to Newton, but apart from that it is simplicity itself: a transparent introduction to what all of physics is today: the construction of mathematics that, miraculously, reproduces our observations of the world—and which also successfully predicts the results of future observations—as so magnificently demonstrated at this glorious Symposium!

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2019 

References

Henry, R. C., 2005, Nature, 436, 29Google Scholar