Einstein's Big Idea - E = mc2 [6/8]

Einstein pursued light right through University and beyond unfortunately he dove set so many professors that no one would write him a reference he accepted a low-paying job in the Swiss Patent Office he and maleva married and had a child the young family struck but not of it seems to bother Albert Einstein I see you are busy as usual look Einstein you you have shown some quite good achievements but listen about your promotion I really think we need to wait until I become familiar with mechanical engineering I'm sorry perhaps next time I can get back and finish my degree now I will never there really is a very charming but but kind of a self-centered Street to Einstein he focuses only on his particular obsessions if the rest of the world fits in around him that's fine if they can't it doesn't bother him but Elbert Elbert a pretty neck and your head spins there so we must behold and comprehend mysterious well that kind of mysterious is going to get you into trouble Anthony what is truly mysterious the secret of a long and happy marriage the mathematics are fine if a little unconventional but this only works for big systems it will fall down when you apply it to small systems I disagree well no here we go another grand theory by her Albert Einstein and patent Clerk third class what would happen if one applied those formulae to electromagnetic radiation Albert you can't just take one bit of physics and apply it without proper regard to a completely different area why not but I know you like the grants linkages the big theories but wouldn't things be better all round if you just got going in some small area but a university post to get a decent wage for God's sake at least me lever could study again then she'd be happy and you'd be happy ah the vulgar struggle for survival food and sex spoken like a true bourgeois listen I want to know how God created this world I'm not interested in this or that phenomenon in the spectrum of this or that element I want to know his thoughts the rest the details yes but you can't feed your children on his thoughts Betty so it turns out I sign was going for a walk with his very close friend Michele Besso they'd studied physics together and talk about physics and philosophy for years and years they were very close they had cornered the question of light from every possible angle see this clip over here as Einstein and beso were ruminating on how much time it would take light to reach them from clocks at different distances Einstein had a monumental insight thank you thank you I have completely solved supportive Albert what Einstein did was completely turned the problem on its head other scientists have found it impossible to accept Maxwell's idea the light would always move away from you at 670 million miles an hour even if you two were travelling really fast but Einstein just accepted that as a fact light's speed never ever changes then what he did was spend everything we know about the universe to fit lights fixed speed what he discovered was that to do that you have to slow down time this extraordinary insight is that time as you approach the speed of light time itself will slow down it's a monumental shift in how we see the world the instant the very instant when Einstein had this brilliant insight that time could slow down well the floodgates began to open you see before them people had assumed that time was like a wristwatch on God's hand that it beat at a steady rate throughout the universe no matter where you were Einstein said no that the tick-tick-tick of this wristwatch was actually the click-click-click of electricity turning into magnetism turning into electricity in other words the steady pace of light itself 19:05 was a miraculous year for Einstein er for physics he had an unbelievable outpouring of creativity it starts with his publication of a paper on how to work out the true size of atoms two months later is the publication of his paper on the nature of light that's what we learned of the Nobel Prize was the third paper only a month later is on how molecules move when heated and that finally ends the debate on whether atoms really exist the fourth paper is published at the end of this half-year period in it Einstein sets out his theory of light time and space it was the theory of special relativity that changed the way we see the world in Einstein's new world the one true constant was not time or even space but light but Einsteins miracle year was not over in one last great 1905 paper he would propose an even deeper unity as it computed all the implications of his new theory he noticed another strange connection this one between energy mass and light Einstein realizes that the speed of light is kind of like a cosmic speed limit nothing can go faster so imagine we have a train charging along and let's say it's getting up to the speed of light and we're stuffing more and more energy in trying to get it to go faster and faster but it's still bumping up against the speed of light so all this energy where does it go it has to go somewhere amazingly it goes into the objects mass from our point of view the Train actually gets heavier the energy becomes mass it's an incredible idea even Einstein is amazed Brian I think I have found a connection between energy and mass if I am right it's an energy and mass are not absolute they are not distinct they can be converted into one another energy can become this and not just energy in mass energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light would you like me to check your mathematics Einstein sent his fifth great 1905 paper for publication in three pages he simply stated that energy and mass were connected by the square of the speed of light e equals MC squared with four familiar notes in the scale of nature this patent officer had composed a totally fresh melody the culmination of his 10-year journey into light here we are for thousands of years thinking that over here is a world of objects of matter and over there is an entirely separate world of movement of forces of energy and I think says no they're not separate energy can become mass and crucially mass can also become energy there's a deep unity between energy matter and light e equals mc-squared that equation shows that every piece of matter in our universe has stored within it a fantastic amount of energy the speed of light for example is about 300 million meters per second you multiply that by itself and you get 90 quadrillion so in other words what is matter in some sense matter is nothing but the condensation of vast amounts of energy so in other words if you could unlock somehow unlock all the energy stored within my pen that would erupt with a force comparable to an atomic bomb after Einsteins fifth-grade 1905 paper physicists no longer spoke of mass or energy they're now the same thing to us probably the most miraculous year in science ends in silence the articles are published to resounding nothing then slowly it starts the letter here a letter there for four years Einstein answered each inquiry dutifully trying to explain his difficult complex ideas to a confused physics community I love the idea that life just went on is normal here are these universe changing papers circling around and the world is struggling to come to terms with

Channel: Phystory Channel

Views: 369,837

Rating: 4.9184966 out of 5

Keywords: E = mc2, Einstein's Big Idea, Einstein Revealed, Most Famous Equation

Id: lPGWMUdaPYE

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2010