What does E = Mc2 really mean?

Walter Benenson Lyman Briggs School of Science and Department of Physics and Astronomy

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Famous but not understood

millions of hits on Google very few are physics There is Newton and the apple. Might be as famous as Washington and the cherry tree and equally historically correct. It is comparable to to be or not to be, Lots wife, the Adam and Eve story, The picture of Dorian Gray etc. This is the only famous science equation. Famous means you may make a joke about in a comic strip. But like many famous things, they are not understood. Heres a typical Google hit:
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Something to think about

Why is E = mc2 associated with nucleus physics? When Einstein created this equation 100 years ago, was it about the nucleus?

Answer is simple: The nucleus was discovered 13 years later! Many books make this mistake. The idea that this equation works only in atomic bombs etc.

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What is Mass?
Mass, M, is the resistance of a body to acceleration. The bigger the mass, the harder it is to accelerate. This is called the inertial mass. Weight is the attraction of the Earth on a body. This turns out to be proportional to the mass. This type of mass is called the gravitational mass. an experimental fact: inertial mass = gravitational mass we dont know why this is so.

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Gravitational Mass on a Spring

When you put a block on a spring, the amount it moves down depends on its gravitational mass. It is attracted to the Earth by the force of gravity which is proportional to M.

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Inertial Mass on a Spring

The frequency of the up down motion is the same anywhere in the universe. It depends only on the mass M and the strength of the spring. Remember ! =
k m ?

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What is Momentum?
Momentum is the amount of inertia which a moving body possesses. It has a direction and is proportional to the mass M of the body and its speed. Except for one case: electromagnetic radiation which has momentum but no mass. The reason SUVs are safer than sedans for the occupants is because they have much more momentum at the same speed. They are harder to stop. The faster you stop the more the damage to the driver.

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What is E = Mc2?
Review: light consists of particles called photons. For a photon E = h! = cp where p is the momentum. But even classical theories (no photons) give light a momentum. Comet tails bend away from the sun because of this. This is an experimental fact which has been veried many, many times. For example when an atom or nucleus emits an x-ray or "-ray, it recoils with precoil = h!/c. The energy of this recoil reduces that available for the emitted photon. (Mossbauer effect)

Nucleus
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Photon

Conservation of Momentum

You can think of this three ways: 1. Newtons third law (man pushes on boat, it pushes back) 2. Momentum is conserved (man goes to left, boat goes right) 3. Center of mass of man plus boat can not move

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Einsteins Gedanken Experiment

If radiation E is emitted from the left end of the box, the box must recoil to the left with a calculable momentum. Hence the box moves a calculable distance before the radiation is absorbed at the other end, and the box stops. Since the center of mass can not move, the radiation must have transferred mass.

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The Algebra
recoil of box due to light momentum time light is in ight distance box moves center of mass doesnt move plug in for !x

Mv =

E c L c

v =

E Mc

!t =

!x = v!t =

EL Mc2

0 = !M"x + mL

EL c2

= mL

solve
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E = mc2

In Class Exercise
According to what we have said, which has a larger mass, The bound hydrogen atom on the left or the unbound proton plus electron on the right?

<

bound electron

unbound electron

You have to add energy to the left system to make it into the right system. Therefore it has less mass by an amount Ebinding/c2
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Why dont we solve our energy crisis this way?

Suppose you have an object of mass 50 kg (like some famous physicist.) How much energy is that? E = 50(3108)2 = 4.51018 Joules = 1.25109 MWH Average home uses 12 MWH per year. There is no way to use the rest mass of a 50 kg object. You can not change the total number of protons, neutrons, and electrons. However, you can get back 2Mc2 pretty easily. Send the 50 kg into a place in space where there is lots of antimatter. better way to write equation
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!E = !Mc2

Another in-class exercise

Converting a 50 kg object into energy would produce 4.51018 Joules, enough to run 10 million homes for a year. How much mass is actually converted to energy to provide electricity for 10 million homes for a year?
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Answer: 50 kg but it takes the chemical burning of 51011 kg of fuel to do it.

Another
How much mass is converted to energy when 2 moles of water are produced from H and O? It takes a net of 118 kcal to decompose 2 moles of H2O into its elements 2H2 + O2 # 2H20 2 moles = 36 g = 0.036 kg 118kcal = 118kcal4186J/kcal= 4.93105 J = E =mc2 m = E/c2 = 4.93105/(91016) = 5.510-12 kg fraction of mass lost = 5.510-14/0.036=1.510-10 too small to observe.

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Experimental Verication in Nuclear Physics

proton + deuteron => helium-three + gamma p + D => 3He + " 1.6724 + 3.3432 => 5.0156 + ?????(x10-27 kg) the " has no mass but has an energy 5.5 MeV. If we convert this with E = Mc2, we get 5.0156 - [1.6724+3.3432] = 0.0098 x10-27 kg this is the extra mass between the end product and the sum of the two entrance particles. Fraction = 0.018 (one of the largest known)

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Mass Increase with Velocity

Most objects have a rest mass, m0, but not the photon. The actual inertial mass, m, then depends on velocity. m = " m0
!= 1 v 1-( )2 c
!
8.0 7.0 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 0.0

! = 1/(1-(v/c)2 ) 1/2

even at v/c = 0.02, (3,720 miles/second), " = 1.0002. Mass is only 0.02% bigger than the rest mass. Conclusion: relativity unimportant for macroscopic systems. Certainly not useful in space exploration. But GPS systems would not work without it.

0.2

0.4

v/c

0.6

0.8

1.0

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Some Practical aspects of E = mc2

The cyclotron frequency is the number of turns per second made by a particle in a magnetic eld

f =

qB qB 2!m m

What happens as particle accelerates in the cyclotron? Its mass increases so f must change. Solution: B increases with R just the right way. At a xed B, f depends only on Q/m. So 6Li would have the same frequency as 12C. Small binding difference makes frequency different by 0.25%.
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Magnetic eld of the K50 increases right at the outer edge where the mass changes.

What Powers the Sun?

Nuclear reactions power the stars (and the sun)
All energy comes from mass

Massinitial

Massnal

Reaction
Massconverted = fMassinitial

fchem ~ 1.5x10-10 fgravity ~ 7.5x10-6 ffusion ~ 1.0x10-3

2200 y 107 y 1011 y

Energy released fMassinitialc2

No other source lasts lifetime of sun (4.5 x 109 yr)

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Good source book but not always right

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Very good but a little complex source

Very interesting section on Einsteins work in the patent ofce. It was the synchronization of clocks, a key technological problem of the late 19th century. Also describes how Poincars essays on important open questions in physics led to Einsteins great discoveries of 1905.
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Conclusions
E=Mc2 refers to the change in mass when you impart energy to a body. The mass of a solid body can not be converted entirely to energy. In fact only a tiny fraction. E=Mc2 refers to all systems not just nuclei Recommended reading: Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time, by Peter Galison, E=Mc2 by David Bodanis. Main reference: Special Relativity, by A. P. French.

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Relativistically Correct Derivation

L v1 m2 m2 v2

m1 m1

This takes into account the fact that recoil m1 has a reduced mass and m2 an increased mass. Complicated proof, but answer is the same.

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