Related papers: Energy-mass equivalence from Maxwell equations
In 1905, Einstein carried out his first derivation of the mass-energy equivalence by studying in different reference frames the energy balance of a body emitting electromagnetic radiation and assuming special relativity as a prerequisite.…
The equivalence of mass and energy is indelibly linked with relativity, both by scientists and in the popular mind. I prove that E = mc^2 by demanding momentum conservation of an object that emits two equal electromagnetic wave packets in…
The Einstein's mass-energy relation $E=mc^2$ is one of the most fundamental formulae in physics, but it has not been seriously tested by an elaborated experiment, and only some indirect evidences in nuclear reaction suggested that it holds…
The mass-energy formula E=mc^2 is thought to be derived by Einstein from special relativity. The present study shows that since the formula has also been derived from classical physics by Einstein, it is not an exclusively relativistic…
The E=mc^2 relationship is not unique to special relativity. Einstein published one exact derivation from special relativity and two approximate derivations that used general extensions to Newtonian mechanics, and an exact derivation is…
In relativistic mechanics the energy-momentum of a free point mass moving without acceleration forms a four-vector. Einstein's celebrated energy-mass relation E=mc^2 is commonly derived from that fact. By contrast, in Newtonian mechanics…
There are several ways to derive Einstein's celebrated formula for the energy of a massive particle at rest, $E=mc^2$. Noether's theorem applied to the relativistic Lagrange function provides an unambiguous and straightforward access to…
It is universally believed that with his 1905 paper "Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?" Einstein first demonstrated the equivalence of mass and energy by making use of his special theory of relativity. In the final…
The article traces the way Einstein formulated the relation between energy and mass in his work from 1905 to 1955. Einstein emphasized quite often that the mass $m$ of a body is equivalent to its rest energy $E_0$. At the same time he…
The energy-mass content of Einstein's E = mc^{2} is well known. For a fixed value of mass, E = mc^{2} is an energy-momentum relation which takes the form E = \sqrt{m^{2} + p^{2}}. This relation was formulated in 1905 for point particles.…
The expressions of momentum and energy of a particle in special relativity are often derived in a quite unconvincing manner in elementary text, by resorting either to electrodynamic or quantum considerations, or via the introduction of the…
A major consequence of special relativity, expressed in the relation $E_0 = m c^2$, is that the total energy content of an object at rest, including its thermal motion and binding energy among its constituents, is a measure of its inertia,…
We study influence of gravitational field on the mass-energy equivalence relation by incorporating gravitation in the physical situation considered by Einstein (Ann. Physik, 17, 1905, English translation in ref. [1]) for his first…
A cornerstone of physics, Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, apparently contains a fatal flaw. The standard expressions for the electromagnetic field energy and self-mass of an electron of finite extension do not obey Einstein's famous…
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…
A new term describing interactions between charge and potentials may be added to the right hand side of the Einstein equations. In the proposed term an additional tensor has been introduced containing a charge density, analogous to the…
Einstein's most famous equation -- $E=mc^2$ -- generated a short-circuit between the concepts of mass and energy, which also affects other concepts like matter, radiation, and vacuum. Physics currently has a mixture of classical,…
Einstein's theoretical analysis of mass-energy equivalence, already, at the time, experimentally evident in radioactive decays, in two papers published in 1905, as well as Planck's introduction, in 1906, of the concepts of relativistic…
Following Einstein's definition of Lagrangian density and gravitational field energy density (Einstein, A., Ann. Phys. Lpz., 49, 806 (1916); Einstein, A., Phys. Z., 19, 115 (1918); Pauli, W., {\it Theory of Relativity}, B.I. Publications,…
Physics was in crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century because the newborn Maxwell's electromagnetism defied mechanistic preconceptions. Albert Einstein understood that the solution to the crisis required an audacious reworking of…