E=MC squared-38

Finally, a book that explains Einstein's famous equation in plain English. It's about time somebody came up with that idea.

The book breaks down the equation into small parts and explains each of them in detail. Even the = sign has a brief history included. I always wondered how the = sign came to be the universally accepted sign in mathematics.

In addition to breaking down how the formula works, the book also gives a historical account of how Einstein came up with the formula, how it was accepted, and how it affected history.

I found it interesting that Einstein didn't actually create most of his most famous formula, he simply took the research of past scientists and put it together in a new way, that nobody else had bothered (or dared) to think of. It was rather like a simple math equation, 2+2, some scientists created one of the 2s and other scientists came up with the other 2, but none of them decided to throw in the + sign and get the result of 4. I blame the Church's tyrannical rule over every aspect of life back in those times. To go against the teachings of the church was to volunteer for a long and tiresome battle that usually ended in defeat and occasionally assasination. So these researchers managed to get their findings accepted and won the battle against the church, but didn't pursue that research further.

Einstein was simply the scientist that "threw in the + sign" as I put it, and the "4" he came up with was his formula. So a large portion of the credit for the formula goes to his predecessors. Not to undermine Einstein's greatness, he did, after all, come up with the links between the researcher's results, and that takes a high level of intellegence. In addition most science builds upon discoveries made in the past, so  it's still fair to say Einstein's formula is his own.

I was also struck by the fact that one of the world's greatest scientific discovries is made, and what is the first thing we do with it? We create a bomb and blow up two cities and kill tens of thousands of innocent people. Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees a problem with that. Of all the things we could have used that discovery for, we use it to kill our own kind. I'm no pacifist, but that seems fundamentally wrong to me. Even more disturbing was that Einstien himself sent a letter to the president suggesting that his formula be used to create a bomb. So even scientists who should be seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge are instinctively thinking of ways to kill human life with their discoveries. An earth shattering thought for those of us who are convinced that human nature is anything but evil, and a confirmation of the obvious to those of us who already believe that humanity is evil.

Being somewhere down the middle of those two viewpoints this thought doesn't sit well with me, but it doesn't surprise me either, which is a fact that also doesn't sit well with me. I'd love to believe that human nature is good at heart, but the more I see of this sad world we live in the more I am forced to accept that this is not the case...