It's a liberal fiction that E=mc2 has ever been applied in any practical way. The equation defines rest mass in terms of the speed of light - an absurdity.
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Nukes? The sun is "applying" this principle all the time.
But basically yes, the speed of light plays a role. In short the invariant ("rest") mass of an object is the pseudo-Euclidean length of the 4-vector of its energy and momentum, calculated using the relativistic version of the pythagorean theorem which has a different sign for the space and time dimensions. This length is preserved under any Lorentz boost or rotation in four dimensions, just like the ordinary length of a vector is preserved under rotations. The speed of light crops up by being inherent to four dimensional Minkowski space.
Now, what I would like to know is why is that a problem for a Christian?
You... can't be serious. I guess nuclear power plants are powered by elves.
Oh I forgot, Andy thinks that the Theory of Relativity is a secret liberal plot by President Obama to allow more abortions:
Some liberal politicians have extrapolated the theory of relativity to metaphorically justify their own political agendas. For example, Democratic President Barack Obama helped publish an article by liberal law professor Laurence Tribe to apply the relativistic concept of "curvature of space" to promote a broad legal right to abortion.
"It's a liberal fiction that E=mc2 has ever been applied in any practical way."
Hiroshima and Nagasaki would like a word with you.
It's only an absurdity when you don't have the foggiest idea what the equation means or of physics or, as you have shown, of anything. But even if it was an absurdity the only thing that matters is that it works. Do you use GPS? It takes the Theory of Relativity into account. Without it GPS would never work.
@Frostythesnowman
Even then he's straying into something quite challenging to his intellectual level. I mean, 2+2 is 4? That's a liberal conspiracy!
From the man who thinks "beautifull autumn foliage" is proof of god...
@Filin De Blanc: He's generally arguing that the theory of relativity conserning space-time implies moral relativity. No, I'm not kidding.
It's a liberal fiction that E=mc2 has ever been applied in any practical way.
And nuclear power plants are a fictional plot device of Matt Groening for the Simpsons, Right?
I'll go with a "liberal fiction" over your conservative "truthiness" any day Andy.
What's next, the Moonshot was staged, as a Satanic plot?
The equation defines rest mass in terms of the speed of light - an absurdity.
No it doesn't. It defines the relativistic mass mr in terms of the speed of light. mr = rest mass /sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2). We did an experiment to demonstrate this in Physics 101, trying to deflect increasingly-faster (and therefore more massive) electrons with a fixed magnetic field.
How many physics lessons did these idiot miss?. On the other side, for once I wish he were true, because we wouldn't have had Hiroshima or Chernovil, for example.
@ various:
Nuclear power and weapons are unrelated to e = mc^2, and Einstein worked only peripherally on the whole topic. The energy released in splitting an atom isn't created out of mass; it's the "binding energy" of the atom, or rather a portion of it. (Think of it like stretching a rubber band, and then snapping it. Energy is released - the energy you put into it to stretch it in the first place - but you still have just as much rubber band.)
Of course, there are a bunch of other things that genuinely are applications of relativity (like GPS, which various people have mentioned), so Andy's no less completely wrong.
@Jamaican Castle:
You are wrong.
The energy released by nuclear fission or fusion is the same as the mass difference between the input and the products. Nuclear binding energy is simply part of the mass of the atoms concerned.
For example: while a single proton has a mass of 1.007276 atomic mass units and a single neutron has a mass of 1.008664 amu, two protons and two neutrons bonded together in a helium-4 nucleus only masses 4.001506 amu. The extra 0.030374 amu was converted from mass-energy into photons and the kinetic energy of the fusion products. E = mc^2 is the conversion factor.
This applies to chemical as well as nuclear reactions, but is usually small enough to be neglected. Chemical binding energy changes masses by parts-per-billion , while fusion is parts-per-thousand and fission is parts-per-ten-thousand .
Please read up on your physics, starting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy . I particularly recommend the 'mass defect' section.
And, yes, Schalfy is being deliberately and willfully ignorant. He had to learn the basics of relativity and mass-energy equivalence and their applications at Princeton.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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