E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

by David Bodanis
E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

by David Bodanis

Paperback(Reissue)

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Overview

Already climbing the bestseller lists-and garnering rave reviews—this "little masterpiece" sheds brilliant light on the equation that changed the world.

Bodanis begins by devoting chapters to each of the equation's letters and symbols, introducing the science and scientists forming the backdrop to Einstein's discovery—from Ole Roemer's revelation that the speed of light could be measured to Michael Faraday's pioneering work on energy fields. Having demystified the equation, Bodanis explains its science and brings it to life historically, making clear the astonishing array of discoveries and consequences it made possible. It would prove to be a beacon throughout the twentieth century, important to Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the structure of the atom, Enrico Fermi, who probed the nucleus, and Lise Meitner, who finally understood how atoms could be split wide open. And it has come to inform our daily lives, governing everything from the atomic bomb to a television's cathode-ray tube to the carbon dating of prehistoric paintings.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780425181645
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 10/01/2001
Edition description: Reissue
Pages: 352
Sales rank: 216,984
Product dimensions: 4.71(w) x 8.21(h) x 0.89(d)
Lexile: 1170L (what's this?)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

David Bodanis studied mathematics at the University of Chicago and in 1988 became a Senior Associate Member of St. Anthony's College in Oxford, England. From 1991-97, he lectured at the University of Oxford, designing the university's main survey of social science methods. Author of several books, he is an ideas consultant to corporations and organizations worldwide. A native of Chicago, he lives in London with his family.

Read an Excerpt

Part 1, Birth
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "E=mc2"
by .
Copyright © 2001 David Bodanis.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Preface
Part 1: Birth
1. Bern Patent Office, 1905
Part 2: Ancestors of E=mc²
2. E is for Energy
3. =
4. m Is for mass
5. c Is for celeritas
6. ²
Part 3: The Early Years
7. Einstein and the Equation
8. Into the Atom
9. Quiet in the Midday Snow
Part 4: Adulthood
10. Germany's Turn
11. Norway
12. America's Turn
13. 8:16 AM - Over Japan
Part 5: Til the End of Time
14. The Fires of the Sun
15. Creating the Earth
16. A Brahmin Lifts His Eyes Unto the Sky
Epilogue: What Else Einstein Did
Appendix: Follow-Up of Other Key Participants
Notes
Guide to Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is not a physics book. It is a history of where the equation [E=mc2] came from and how it has changed the world. After a short chapter on the equation's birth, Bodanis presents its five symbolic ancestors in sequence, each with its own chapter and each with rich human stories of achievement and failure, encouragement and duplicity, love and rivalry, politics and revenge. Readers meet not only famous scientists at their best and worst but also such famous and infamous characters as Voltaire and Marat...Bodanis includes detailed, lively and fascinating back matter...His acknowledgements end, 'I loved writing this book.' It shows." —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"E=mc2, focusing on the 1905 theory of special relativity, is just what its subtitle says it is: a biography of the world's most famous equation, and it succeeds beautifully. For the first time, I really feel that I understand the meaning and implications of that equation, as Bodanis takes us through each symbol separately, including the = sign...there is a great 'aha!' awaiting the lay reader." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"'The equation that changed everything' is familiar to even the most physics-challenged, but it remains a fuzzy abstraction to most. Science writer Bodanis makes it a lot more clear." —Discover

"Excellent...With wit and style, he explains every factor in the world's most famous and least understood equation....Every page is rich with surprising anecdotes about everything from Einstein's youth to the behind-the-scenes workings of the Roosevelt administration. Here's a prediction: E=mc2 is one of those odd, original, and handsomely written books that will prove more popular than even its publisher suspects." —Nashville Scene

"You'll learn more in these 300 pages about folks like Faraday, Lavoisier, Davy and Rutherford than you will in many a science course...a clearly written, astonishingly understandable book that celebrates human achievement and provides some idea of the underlying scientific orderliness and logic that guides the stars and rules the universe." —Parade

"Bodanis truly has a gift for bringing his subject matter to life." —Library Journal [starred review]

"Entertaining...With anecdotes and illustrations, Bodanis effectively opens up E=mc2 to the widest audience." —Booklist

"Accessible...he seeks, and deserves, many readers who know no physics. They'll learn a handful-more important, they'll enjoy it, and pick up a load of biographical and cultural curios along the way." —Publishers Weekly

Interviews

Exclusive Author Essay
The idea for this book dates back to when I was a schoolchild in Chicago. On a field trip, one of my classmates asked our teacher what Einstein had invented. None of the teachers knew, and that was puzzling: We all had heard that Einstein was one of the greatest minds in history. Yet what was it he had invented?

Years passed, and I studied math and physics at the University of Chicago and ultimately ended up teaching at Oxford. Yet I realized that many of my friends now were in the same position my school friends and I had been in those years before: They knew Einstein and relativity and E=mc2 were important...but they didn't know why. I realized I could write a book that would help resolve that, if I simply explained E=mc2 in terms of the people who had played a central role in that equation. Their hopes and ambitions and passions would be a "vehicle" through which I could give readers a powerful, clear explanation of Einstein's science.

To understand what the "m" is doing in the equation, I look at the life of Antoine Lavoisier, the wealthy Parisian whose life ended on the guillotine during the French Revolution; to explain the "e" in the equation, I look at Michael Faraday, a boy from the slums of London at the beginning of the 1800s who rose up to a top position at the Royal Institution (even though the mentor who brought him there ultimately turned against young Faraday at his very moment of triumph).

But the equation also applies in ordinary life, and I show E=mc2 operating in ordinary medical equipment, and even in the red-glowing exit signs in our movie theaters. Its sway stretches out into space, and in one of my favorite chapters I recount the story of Cecilia Payne, the young British woman who first understood that the sun was made out of hydrogen and that this "mass" is "pumped" through the equation to come out as the glowing "energy" that lights up our planet, and our solar system...and glows out through the galaxy, serving as a beacon to Einstein's great insight and all the individuals who were part of his great work.

--David Bodanis

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