e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right

[Guest guest]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081120/sc_afp/sciencephysicseinstein_081

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e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right

Thu Nov 20, 6:56 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – It's taken more than a century, but Einstein's

celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a

heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian

physicists.

A brainpower consortium led by t Lellouch of France's Centre

for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world's mightiest

supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the

mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms.

According to the conventional model of particle physics, protons and

neutrons comprise smaller particles known as quarks, which in turn

are bound by gluons.

The odd thing is this: the mass of gluons is zero and the mass of

quarks is only five percent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95

percent?

The answer, according to the study published in the US journal

Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and

interactions of quarks and gluons.

In other words, energy and mass are equivalent, as Einstein proposed

in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905.

The e=mc2 formula shows that mass can be converted into energy, and

energy can be converted into mass.

By showing how much energy would be released if a certain amount of

mass were to be converted into energy, the equation has been used

many times, most famously as the inspirational basis for building

atomic weapons.

But resolving e=mc2 at the scale of sub-atomic particles -- in

equations called quantum chromodynamics -- has been fiendishly

difficult.

" Until now, this has been a hypothesis, " France's National Centre for

Scientific Research (CNRS) said proudly in a press release.

" It has now been corroborated for the first time. "

For those keen to know more: the computations involve " envisioning

space and time as part of a four-dimensional crystal lattice, with

discrete points spaced along columns and rows. "

[Guest guest]

I wonder if this could be applied on a macro scale to the rest of universe and explain all the "missing matter" and dark energy? Perhaps a lot of the missing mass is actually energy caused by the interaction between the many stars, galaxies and all the rest.

In a message dated 11/21/2008 3:32:44 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

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