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LECTURE 22
     goals and outline

lecture title

    E = mc²: Energy and Mass are Equivalent

text pages

    Ch 11, pp 129-134. You may skip the part which goes with the figure on p.133 in Energy and Mass on pp 132-134.

lecture goals

  • You will get a feel for the plausibility of the famous equation E=mc², but we won't actually derive it.
  • You will learn a bit about why it's famous (more next lecture).
  • You will understand how nature enforces the speed limit that nothing can go faster than the speed of light in vacuum.

outline of lecture

    1. Gedanken Experiment 7: Moving Mass Increases

    2. Nature's Speed Limit

    3. E = mc²

quote

It is a wonderful feeling to recognize the unifying features of a complex of phenomena which present themselves as quite unconnected to the direct experience of the senses.

-- Albert Einstein

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Please email any questions, comments, or suggestions to Professor Bernice Durand, bdurand@theory3.physics.wisc.edu.

Revised October 19, 1997.


Content © 1997, Bernice Durand
Images and layout © 1997, Shane Hamilton