Re: KuJomu - the writing
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, November 11, 2002, 9:48 |
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En réponse à Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>:
>
> How is E=mc^2 misquoted?
>
It doesn't mean anything when quoted this way. The correct formula is
E=gamma*mc^2, and it's this gamma which is the most important for Einstein's
Relativity Theory. It's equal to 1 over square root of 1 minus v^2/c^2, v being
the speed of the object, c of course the speed of light. The formula E=mc^2 is
valid only when v=0 (for that reason, E0=mc^2 is called the resting energy or
mass energy of the object. If it was quoted as E0=mc^2, I wouldn't have
anything against it, because E0 and E are different things), which is a very
specialised case of the correct formula, and a stupid one at that, since if the
object is at rest you don't need Relativity to explain its behaviour (actually,
it would be stupid to do so! Restricted Relativity is only interested in the
behaviour of objects whose speed is near the speed of light).
In that sense E=mc^2 is a misquote: it refers to a special case of the correct
formula where it is nonsensical to use this formula at all!
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.
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