E=mc^2

E=mc^2, a documentary film, introduces several scientists who helped and created the ideas of energy, mass, the speed of light, and square roots. It begins with the story of Einstein but travels back into time to hear of Faraday, Lavoisier, Maxwell and Du Chatelet. After explaining all four theories of Einstein's own idea, the movie continues by how Albert E. invented E=mc^2. It then used Meitner and Hahn's discovery of splitting an atom by using Eistein's E=mc^2.

Michael Faraday, 1791 to 1867, was born as the son of a blacksmith and was therefore very poor. As the apprentice of a book binder, Faraday used this opportunity to learn. He was most interested in science and particularly, physics but science and conducting experiments was specifically reserved for the higher class. Still, resisting the difference between ranks, Faraday was able to work under Humphrey Davy. He used this opportunity to further test theories of his own. Faraday hypothesized that electricity passing through a wire created invisible fields of magnetism but these "lines of force" did not always pass in straight lines. He also showed that electricity could create magnetism and that magnetism could generate electricity. I remember the movie showing one experiment in which Faraday put a wire carrying electricity in a bowl filled with mercury. Faraday placed a compass in the bowl so that it was floating on the mercury and noticed that the compass' arrow moved alongside the "lines of force" created by the electricity passing though the wire. In E=mc^2, 'E' is for energy.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, 1743 to 1794, was a tax collector in France. He and his wife, Marie Anner Paulze Lavoisier, showed that mass was conserved in any chemical reaction. To test their theory, the two chemists would put water in a beaker, which would then pass through an iron barrel heated by coals and into two other beakers, one to hold water and the other, gas. After the experiment, Lavoisier weighed the matter in both beakers and the condensation still in the iron barrel, noticing that there was the same amount of matter after the chemical reaction than there was before. Therefore, mass could not be created or destroyed. In E=mc^2, 'm' is for mass.

Not only did Michael Faraday contribute once to Einstein's theory, E=mc^2, but he also began the groundwork of another idea which would be included in the same formula. However, the speed of light was mostly concluded by James Maxwell, 1831 to 1879. Maxwell was a mathematician who came to Faraday's aid when no one would believe his theories. Maxwell proved that light was a wave of electric and magnetic fields, the basis of which Faraday created. Maxwell also calculated the speed of light and concluded that nothing could go as fast as light. In E=mc^2, 'c' is for celeritas or the speed of light.

Emilie Du Chatelet, 1706 to 1749, was a wealthy aristocrat living in France. Like Faraday, Du Chatelet was not welcome in the life of experimenting science. Even though she was a woman, she still learned and mastered mathematics and physics. She argued against Newton's widely trusted theory by taking his theory, a formula, but squaring it. She proved her theory by using the work of a scientist that would drop a lead ball into clay at certain distances. When a ball was dropped twice the distance from the first lead ball, it's impact on the clay was four times as much, therefore introducing the idea of squaring a number. In E=mc^2, ^2 is for squaring.

Albert Einstein, 1879 to 1955, was only interest in physics, his violin and especially the idea of light. He was a stubborn student was known to be bad at math, though his wife was much better. When working as a patent clerk, he questioned and explored many ideas or theories of physics. His most popular discovery was that of E=mc^2, which shows that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa. Since he was so interested in light, he wondered if light would seem to stand still if you were going at the same speed as light itself. However, he knew by Maxwell's idea that you could not go as fast as the speed of light, therefore making his own theory. He hypothesized that time actually slowed down according to the speed of light, that light was always moving. Einstein, now known as the father of physics, created a whole new era of physics.

Lisa Meitner and Otto Hahn used Einstein's theory, E=mc^2 to discover the idea of splitting open an atom. Though Meitner was very shy and woman were still considered low in science, she connected chemistry and physics and her discovery lead to years of further experiments and the atomic bomb. She and Hahn would "throw" a neutron at a uranium atom, expecting to see the atom get better. Before finishing their experiments, Meitner was forced to leave in order to escape the Nazis. However, Hahn and Meitner still communicated by letters while Otto Hahn continued the experiments, detailing his results to Meitner. Hahn recorded that instead of getting a bigger atom when adding the one neutron to the uranium atom, he got a smaller atom which identified as Barium. This let to their further discovery of fission and its immense release in energy. Afterward, Hahn took all the credit of Meitner's work and Meitner's nephew, Otto Frish, who also helped discover the idea of fission, helped create the atomic bomb.

Overall, the documentary was very educational and informative. However, unlike many educational films, "E=mc^2" wasn't as boring as I would have expected. I was glad to see that Einstein's theory was broken into six parts instead of being explained in one, which would have been very confusing. The movie, not only explained Einstein's theory, but that of many other scientists included in my reflection.