Einstein and the Day that Changed Physics: E=mc²
118 years ago, on September 28, 1905, the German physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) published one of the most important articles in the history of science, entitled “On the Electrodynamics of Bodies in Motion”. In this article, he presented his Special Theory of Relativity, which revolutionized the understanding of space and time. The Special Theory of Relativity is based on two postulates: the principle of relativity, which states that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference (which are not accelerated); and the principle of constancy of the speed of light, which states that light propagates in a vacuum with a constant speed, independent of the movement of the source or the observer
From these postulates, Einstein deduced several surprising consequences, such as time dilation, space contraction, mass-energy equivalence, and the increase in mass with speed. These consequences showed that space and time are not absolute, but relative to the observer's state of motion. Furthermore, they showed that energy and mass are two different forms of the same physical quantity, and that they can be converted into one another using the famous formula E = mc²
The Special Theory of Relativity was a great advance for modern physics, as it explained several phenomena that could not be understood by Isaac Newton's classical physics. It also paved the way for the General Theory of Relativity, published by Einstein in 1915, which describes gravity as a consequence of the curvature of space-time caused by the presence of matter.
Einstein's theories were confirmed by countless experiments and observations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and became fundamental to the development of science and technology.
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