Famous Equation: Cracks in The Theory
Famous Equation: Cracks in The Theory
Famous Equation: Cracks in The Theory
(2) Force is equal to the change in momentum per change of time. For a
constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration.
Twenty years later, an unexpected result threw this into question. Physicist
A.A. Michelson and chemist Edward Morley (both Americans at the time)
calculated how Earth's motion through this "ether" affected how the speed of
light is measured, and found that the speed of light is the same no matter
what Earth's motion is. This led to further musings on light's behavior — and
its incongruence with classical mechanics — by Austrian physicist Ernst Mach
and French mathematician Henri Poincare.
Einstein began thinking of light's behavior when he was just 16 years old, in
1895. He did a thought experiment, the encyclopedia said, where he rode on
one light wave and looked at another light wave moving parallel to him.
Classical physics should say that the light wave Einstein was looking at would
have a relative speed of zero, but this contradicted Maxwell's equations that
showed light always has the same speed: 186,000 miles a second. Another
problem with relative speeds is they would show that the laws
of electromagnetism change depending on your vantage point, which
contradicted classical physics as well (which said the laws of physics were the
same for everyone.)
Famous equation
Einstein's work led to some startling results, which today still seem
counterintuitive at first glance even though his physics is usually introduced at
the high school level.
2015 marks 100 years since the publication of Albert Einstein's General Theory of
Relativity. Learn the basics of Einstein's theory of relativity in our infographic
here. (Image credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)
One of the most famous equations in mathematics comes from special
relativity. The equation — E = mc2 — means "energy equals mass times the
speed of light squared." It shows that energy (E) and mass (m) are
interchangeable; they are different forms of the same thing. If mass is
somehow totally converted into energy, it also shows how much energy would
reside inside that mass: quite a lot. (This equation is one of the
demonstrations for why an atomic bomb is so powerful, once its mass is
converted to an explosion.)
This equation also shows that mass increases with speed, which effectively
puts a speed limit on how fast things can move in the universe. Simply put,
the speed of light (c) is the fastest velocity at which an object can travel in a
vacuum. As an object moves, its mass also increases. Near the speed of light,
the mass is so high that it reaches infinity, and would require infinite energy to
move it, thus capping how fast an object can move. The only reason light
moves at the speed it does is because photons, the quantum particles that
make up light, have a mass of zero.
Another strange conclusion of Einstein's work comes from the realization that
time moves relative to the observer. An object in motion experiences time
dilation, meaning that time moves more slowly when one is moving, than
when one is standing still. Therefore, a person moving ages more slowly than
a person at rest. So yes, when astronaut Scott Kelly spent nearly a year
aboard the International Space Station in 2015-16, his twin astronaut
brother Mark Kelly aged a little faster than Scott.
1. Equilibrium of Structures
Loading on Structures
Conditions of Equilibrium
Transmissibility of Force
Principle of superposition
Compound Beams
Exercise 1
2. Shearing Force and Bending Moment
Internal Forces