Pre-empting Einstein
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
16-19
Though the equation E = mc 2 is inextricably linked with Einstein, he was not the first person to propose the possibility of the equivalence of mass and energy:
- In 1704, Newton posed the question: “Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible into one another, and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?”
- J. J. Thomson, in 1881, noted that a moving charged sphere must produce a magnetic field, which modifies its own motion, effectively increasing its mass. He drew an analogy to a sphere moving through water. His analysis led to the conclusion the E = 34mc 2 for an electron in motion.
- In 1900, Henri Poincaré linked energy with a ‘fictitious fluid’ with mass, m = c 2E.
- In a lecture at Yale in 1903, Thompson mentioned the equation in the form E = mc 2.
- In 1904, just a few months before Einstein’s paper, Friedrich Hasenöhrl presented a paper that argued E = 38mc 2. He subsequently published a correction, claiming E = 34mc 2.
References
J. P. Auffray, JDual origin of E= mc2, 2006, preprint physics/0608289, p.1
E. A. Davis, & I. Falconer, J.J. Thompson And The Discovery Of The Electron, London, Taylor and Francis, 1997, p. 12
S. Boughn, Fritz Hasenöhrl and E= mc2. The European Physical Journal H, 38(2), 2013, 261-278, p. 262
J. Dunning-Davies, Does Physics Need Special and General Relativity? In R. L. Amoroso, L. H. Kauffman, & P. Rowlands, Unified Field Mechanics: Natural Science Beyond the Veil of Spacetime, Singapore, World Scientific Publishing Co., 2016, 148- 156, p. 153
F. Yang, & J. H. Hamilton, Modern Atomic and Nuclear Physics, Singapore, World Scientifc Publishing Co., 2010, p. 27
S. Boughn, Fritz Hasenöhrl and E= mc2. The European Physical Journal H, vol. 38, no. 2, 2013, 261-278.
