More Than 100 Years Later, Scientists Prove E = mc2

Posted by Alex in Science & Tech on November 22, 2008 at 1:55 pm


More than 100 years ago, Albert Einstein put forth his theory of relativity in what is probably the world’s most famous equation E = mc2. Now, French, German and Hungarian physicists have computationally proven that he was right:

A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France’s Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world’s mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms.

According to the conventional model of particle physics, protons and neutrons comprise smaller particles known as quarks, which in turn are bound by gluons.

The odd thing is this: the mass of gluons is zero and the mass of quarks is only five percent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95 percent?

The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons.

In other words, energy and mass are equivalent, as Einstein proposed in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905.

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Previously on Neatorama: 10 Strange Facts About Einstein


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9 comments to "More Than 100 Years Later, Scientists Prove E = mc2"

  1. Justin
    November 22nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    "The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons."

    It's all so clear now!! :P

  2. Ali S.
    November 22nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    I can finally be free of my irrational free of not knowing where that 5% went off to. I can finally leave my house! :D

  3. Him
    November 22nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    Wow, it took the top scientists of the world 100 years to prove it and it took a patent clerk that failed his entry exam to UCM a couple of years to write the paper. Tesla and Einstein were above their times. Imagine where the world would be if they were alive today.

  4. shadowfirebird
    November 22nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    I think maybe Hiroshima proved e=mc2.

  5. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    November 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm

    Huh... So when we were using E=mc2 in physics class to calculate stuff, nobody even knew if it was right?

  6. renderanything
    November 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    Well that's wonderful to know. Now if we could just get that CERN thing going again and get to the bottom of this string theory stuff.

  7. raina_c
    November 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    I never doubted Einstein.

  8. Rocky Rook
    November 25th, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    over my head.

  9. Darth
    May 12th, 2009 at 4:12 am

    Well I understand, mostly, it's nice to know that someone else thinks they know all about it.

    Oh, btw render, they have discounted string theory and replaced it with m-theory, it's basicly the same, but with 11 dimentions instead of 10.


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