what does e=mc 2 mean, really ???

Question

I know its Einstein's theory of relativity but I am not a genious or scientist so give me your explanation in simple terms, plz***

Answer 1

Before Einstein, there were two conservation laws: Conservation of mass, and conservation of energy. It was thought that mass could never be created nor destroyed and neither could energy. What Einstein showed was that mass could be converted into energy and vice versa with the amount of energy corresponding to a mass m being mc^2. So E=mc^2 is just a formula describing the conversion factor between mass and energy. Now, there is *one* conservation law that is for mass*c^2+energy.

Answer 2

E = mc^2 is a direct relationship between mass and energy where "E" is energy, "m" is the mass or change in mass and "c" is the speed of light in a vacuum (3 * 10^8 m/s). A direct application would be the change in mass after nuclear fission--after a uranium atom splits, the total mass of the pieces is very slightly less than the original uranium atom. That change in mass is known as the "mass defect" and is the result of conversion of mass to energy.

To calculate the energy released by the change in mass, you literally just plug the numbers into the equation...E = (change in mass)(3 * 10^8m/s)^2.

Say for instance you wanted to figure out how much energy was contained in one gram of mass if that mass were completely converted to energy (or alternatively...how much energy a nuclear plant produced if it lost one gram of mass in the core due to nuclear fission)....

You would take 1g * 3*10^8 * 3*10^8 and come up with 9*10^16 g m^2/s^2 or (on conversion) about 25,000,000 kilowatt-hours. Assuming electrical power costs about $0.05/KW-Hour, that's about $1,250,000 worth of power.

Answer 3

Basically what it shows is that masses at rest have energy. This was different than the newton way of thinking where there was only kenetic engery (energy when objects move). It can be calculated how much energy a mass has if mass is added or subtracted from it.

Energy = Mass * speed of light squared.

Answer 4

Actually, that equation only holds for nonmoving objects.

In general, you have:

E^2 = M^2C^4 + P^2C^2

(P is momentum)

This means that energy of a particle is given by its kinetic energy (which we're used to in everyday life), but also has a characteristic rest energy that stays with it whether it is moving or not.

Therefore, given zero momentum, the equation reduces to :

e^2=m^2c^4 => E=mc^2

This is simply restating more explicitly that particles will have a rest energy.

Answer 5

E = Energy m = Mass c = Speed of light from the Latin term celeritas, which means "speed" 2 = Squared.

Answer 6

E=MC^2 is a function describing the energy release during a nuclear reaction

E stands for energy
M stands for mass
C stands fo the speed of light

Answer 7

Energy equals mass times the speed of light [squared]

Answer 8

energy = mass X the speed of light squared

Basically it means that there is A LOT of energy built up inside everything with mass...things that are more massive have more potential energy inside of them. Hence relativity.

Answer 9

Energy=MassxSL(Speed of Light)Squared(multiplied by itself).

Answer 10

it means, any mass can be converted in to energy, and when it is done, a very small amount of it (say, 10 gram.) will produce such a huge amount that you can destroy a small town with it.