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American Journal of Physics -- February 1988 -- Volume 56, Issue 2, pp. 114

Did Einstein really discover ‘‘E=mc2’’?

W. L. Fadner

Department of Physics, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado 80639

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In 1952, Herbert Ives claimed that Einstein’s first development of E=mc2 was circular, and that he had not been the first to develop that equation. That allegation has been repeated in several more recent works. Earlier, Planck asserted that one of the postulates that Einstein had used in that development was not exact. Those claims and subsequent papers concerning them are examined herein. The surprisingly long history of the mass–energy relation is summarized. In the context of this topic, it is argued that circularity is seldom a legitimate critique of scientific proposals. A simple refutation of Planck’s claim is also included.

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

HISTORICAL ASPECTS, RELATIVITY THEORY, MASS, ENERGY

PACS

History
Received Oct 1986
Accepted May 1987

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0002-9505 (print)  

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.15713

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