Einstein's E = mc2 Mistakes
Scientific Paper | |
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Title | Einstein\'s E = mc2 Mistakes |
Author(s) | Hans C Ohanian |
Keywords | Relativity, Mass |
Published | 2008 |
Journal | None |
No. of pages | 10 |
Abstract
Although Einstein's name is closely linked with the celebrated relation E = mc2 between mass and energy, a critical examination of the more than half dozen ?proofs? of this relation that Einstein produced over a span of forty years reveals that all these proofs suffer from mistakes. Einstein introduced unjustified assumptions, committed fatal errors in logic, or adopted low-speed, restrictive approximations. He never succeeded in producing a valid general proof applicable to a realistic system with arbitrarily large internal speeds. The first such general proof was produced by Max Laue in 1911 (for ?closed? systems with a timeindependent energy-momentum tensor) and it was generalized by Felix Klein in 1918 (for arbitrary timedependent ?closed? systems).