E = mc2 by David Bodanis, Macmillan, 拢14.99, ISBN 0333780337
WHAT a brilliant idea for a book: a short, snappy account of E = mc2,
the most famous equation in science. The wonder is that no one
thought of it sooner. Almost a century has passed since Einstein unveiled this
most astonishing implication of his special theory of relativity鈥攕o
astonishing, indeed, that even he felt moved to add a question mark to the title
of the paper containing its derivation: 鈥淒oes the inertia of a body depend on
its energy content?鈥�
And no wonder. c2 is the square of the speed of light, which brings
in a factor of 1017 in metric units. So the equation states that crammed into
every kilogram of matter is enough energy to equal a nuclear power station鈥檚
annual output.
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Many people sense the importance of Einstein鈥檚 equation, even if they can鈥檛
say quite why. Now David Bodanis has set about satisfying this huge latent
curiosity with a book that is accessible, hugely enter-taining鈥攂ut
littered with inaccuracies.
According to Bodanis, the trouble with previous attempts to explain
E = mc2 is that they are full of more or less incomprehensible
stuff about 鈥渓ittle trains or rocketships or flashlights鈥�. This has prompted him
to take a different and undoubtedly more appealing approach, in which he
explores the story behind the five components that make up the equation, before
tackling its derivation by Einstein, and its impact on the world at large. So we
are treated to a series of fascinating human interest stories: how the French
chemist Antoine Lavoisier helped pin down the concept of mass, for example, and
how the Danish astronomer Ole R酶mer first showed that the speed of light was
finite.
Even readers familiar with these stories are likely to find something new in
Bodanis鈥檚 treatment of them: how Lavoisier鈥檚 slighting of a leader of the French
Revolution led to his being guillotined, for example, or the trouble R酶mer had
getting credit for his discovery. These, and many other tales, were new to me,
at least. The trouble is, I鈥檓 not sure how much faith I can place in them. For
where Bodanis deals with subjects with which I am familiar, he is less than
reliable.
To illustrate the darkest implication of E = mc2, for
example, he focuses not on the Allied efforts to build an atomic bomb, but those
of Nazi Germany. Which would make a fresh angle鈥攅xcept that the Nazis
never had a Manhattan Project.
There are many other blunders. Einstein鈥檚 prediction of light-bending was not
confirmed from photographs taken in Brazil, but by plates taken by Arthur
Eddington off the African coast. Robert Oppenheimer was not the originator of
the implosion method for atomic bombs.
But worse still are the scientific howlers that litter this account. For a
book whose central theme is energy, he shows a shocking disregard for its
definition, routinely mixing it up with power. At one point, he talks
meaninglessly of the energy locked up in a pound of mass as being 鈥済reater than
all the power stations on Earth鈥�.
Time and again he talks of such nonsensical concepts as 鈥渢he high-speed
frictional heat of E = mc2鈥�, and 鈥渢he electricity of protons鈥�.
His attempts to explain the physics behind E = mc2 are as
risible as they are incomprehensible.
At one point, Bodanis describes how The New York Times sent its
golfing correspondent to cover the confirmation of Einstein鈥檚 prediction of
light-bending, patronisingly describing the man as a 鈥済ood journalist鈥� but
鈥渟omewhat less good, however, in having the slightest clue what was going on
here鈥�. A 17th-century proverb about people in glass houses comes to mind.