E=mc^2???
2006-08-14 15:39:16 · 8 answers · asked by bhcky79 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
If you had a cheeseburger and an anticheeseburger and you wanted to know how much energy you would get when they annhialate each other the energy would be E = m*c^2
where m is the combined mass of the cheeseburgers and c is the speed of light.
It is a lot of energy!
Let's say a cheeseburger is 500 g. Then the total mass is 1 kg. The speed of light is 3.0e8 m/s
Then the energy released is 1 kg * (3e8 m/s)^2 ~ 10e16 J
1.0 x 10^17 Joules is a lot of energy...what could you do with it?
From Wikipedia:
"A megaton of TNT is 4.184 × 1015 joules = 4.184 petajoules (PJ)."
So we have in this case Cheeseburger + Anti-Cheesburger annhialation yielding about 25 megatons of TNT in explosive energy.
2006-08-14 15:55:39 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
E represents Energy, M represents the rest Mass of matter, and C is the speed of light or universal Constant. It illustrates a mind boggling conception - that the energy contained in even a small amount of mass when multiplied by the speed of light SQUARED is enormous! Now we know why only a small portion of the sun is still warming up the earth after all these years - and will continue to do so for many, many more. Probably the best actual, earthly application of this formula is the scariest: the hydrogen bomb. On a more positive note: nuclear power plants.
2006-08-14 23:04:10 · answer #2 · answered by LeAnne 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Question to primenumber. Is this the reason I get a stomach ach when I eat a cheeseburger?
Kidding aside. Every one's got it right, but applying it our daily life is a bit harder. The first time is I applied it was in a class room on a physics test. I got a good grade. Must be a good application.
For the most part this is far from our personal lives because we have only atomic levels of energy, namely Chemical reactions. If a reaction take or gives energy then it's mass will change, but it's so small that we couldn't measurement it.
I apply it indirectly when I pay my electric bill, since some of my bill comes from Palo Verde.
Jim
2006-08-15 01:23:51 · answer #3 · answered by James W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Take a fission reaction, such as
uranium-235 + 1 neutron ==> barium-144 + krypton-90 + 2 neutrons
Compare the mass of the U235 plus neutron to the mass of the products. Convert the mass difference to energy by E = mc^2. That's the energy produced by that particular nuclear reaction.
2006-08-14 23:16:30 · answer #4 · answered by injanier 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sure. It's the general mass-energy equivalence relationship from SR and it says that one kilogram of mass is the equivalent of 90,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of energy. That's a pretty fair amount of energy considering that the total electrical output of the US is about 14,940,000,000,000,000,000 annually(source http://www.nationmaster.com/red/country/us-united-states/Energy-energy&all=1)
Doug
2006-08-14 23:18:29 · answer #5 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In nuclear reaction, the reduction in mass (m) is proportional to the energy (E) released. c is the speed of light.
2006-08-14 22:51:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are you building a nuclear reactor? or trying to figure out how long you'll on your spacecraft travelling at the speed of light?
2006-08-14 22:45:50 · answer #7 · answered by pinko 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go here and hear the actual voice of Einstein himself explain it to you.
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/voice1.htm
2006-08-14 22:56:21 · answer #8 · answered by Jay T 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋