e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right

afp ^ | nov 20 08

[camerakid400]

PARIS (AFP) — It's taken more than a century, but Einstein's celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.

[Ingtar]

Except c is not a constant, throwing off the entire thing. Just as with Geology and other sciences, they assume a steady state for the universe, something they cannot prove.

[doc1019]

I thought the first atomic bomb proved his theory?

[mkjessup]

A "heroic computational effort"?

Why do I visualize young geeks with their calculators, old geeks with their slide rules, all working madly in a bucket brigade, passing buckets full of data for that "heroic" effort? LOL

[SandRat]

The Geniuses of Procrastinators Anonymous

[TheZMan]

Right, unless E’s value is thus also dependent on what alters the value of c. I assume you’re talking about vacuum vs other materials that alter c...

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

c is not the speed of light. The speed of light changes with media. c is a constant numerically equal to the speed of light in vaccuum, void of any other forces, and that’s a constant.

[doc1019]

Hundreds of scientist and more than a century to prove what one man thought up in his own mind. Einstein, u da man. ;-)

[Syncro]

The speed of light changes with media.

Man, the media controls everything these days!

[Ingtar]

Several years ago someone set out to prove that c was a constant. To their dismay, they found that the diffraction patterns travelled along the beam of light faster than the light itself travelled in the vacuum.

[Jeff Chandler]

Heroic Physicist Ping.

[BipolarBob]

On my home planet of K-Pax, we have duplicated the results to eliminate all doubts of its veracity.

[Jeff Chandler]

To their dismay, they found that the diffraction patterns travelled along the beam of light faster than the light itself travelled in the vacuum.

I hate it when that happens.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

If you had a powerful enough laser pointer, and a big enough screen at a good distance away from you... would moving a spot on the screen by rotating the laser pointer fast enough, give a tangential speed of the spot greater than the velocity of light, in vacuum? Point to ponder :)

[Jeff Chandler]

K-Pax

Pre-lubricated tampons?

[dr huer]

Changes in fundamental constants with time have been searched for in careful and sensitive experiments that could detect a change of a part in a billion and nothing found yet.

[CaptRon]

Took the words out of my mouth.

Apparently no measurement is official with the French signing off on it.

[cripplecreek]

Kind of like the intersecting point of scissors. The intersection point doesn’t have a speed limit because it has no mass.

[CaptRon]

with=without.

It's Friday.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Exactly.