E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation | 
 enlarge | Author: David Bodanis
Creator: Simon Singh
Publisher: Walker & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $17.01 (68%)
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 1042980
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2nd
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.1 x 1.3
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.11
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new - Most copies have a publishers overstock mark (Publisher close-outs usually have a small ink mark or stamp at the base of the book, but are otherwise brand new.)
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Product Description
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s miracle year of discoveries, a new edition of the bestselling “biography” of his famous equation Generations have grown up knowing that the equation E=mc2 changed the shape of our world, but never understanding what it actually means, why it was so significant, and how it informs our daily lives today--governing, as it does, everything from the atomic bomb to a television's cathode ray tube to the carbon dating of prehistoric paintings. In this book, David Bodanis writes the "biography" of one of the greatest scientific discoveries in history--that the realms of energy and matter are inescapably linked--and, through his skill as a writer and teacher, he turns a seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic human achievement and an uncommonly good story.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good Book, Good TV show. October 17, 2005
John Matlock (Winnemucca, NV)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I first heard of this book from the TV show of the same name. The show, presented on PBS by Nova on October 11, 2005 was one of the highlights of the year so far. Asuming that the book would be better than the show I immediately went out and bought it. I was not disappointed. The show was great. The book is great. The show brings out the essense of the book in an extremely easy way. The book backs up the show with greater detail. The show will undoubtedly be repeated watch for it, go buy the book now.
Basically this book/show talks about each term in the famous equasion. What is energy, where/when did we start to think of it? And what's mass? And of course c, the speed limit of the universe. This book uses these terms as the starting point to explain how each of these terms were developed. And then Einstein put them together.
The way the book/show treats Lise Meitner is supurb. She was at the cutting edge of nuclear physics for 55 years. In 1992 the 109th element was named Meitnerium (Mt) in her honor (Einsteinium is number 99). One point not mentioned, at the time when she was developing the basic theory of radioactivity as depicted in the show, she was sixty years old, not the young actress playing her part. Einstein called her 'The German Madame Curie.'
In one scene in the show Einstein is talking to his first wife Mileva Maric. He is explaining the equasion. His wife asks if he would like her to check his mathematics. Mileva Maric was no dummy. Largely forgotten until the recent publication of the love letters Einstein wrote to her, she provided enough input into Einstein's theories that she probably should have been listed as a co-developer, but in those days women just couldn't do those things. Further, the show didn't quite bring out that the famous equasion had a very rigorous mathematical background based on the then newly developed tensor calculus.
Enough writing: Get the book, when it comes out buy the DVD of the show, buy the DVD of the PBS show 'Einstein's Wife.' They cannot be recommended too highly.
Fascinating! March 26, 2006
Eggbert the Great (Northern IL United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Even though I like math & science subjects, I do not normally put math, science and fascinating all together in the same sentence. E = MC2 is such an interesting story, mostly because it brings "life" into the process. The analytical work was well described for each of the respective persons, along with their human side.
Excellent! I will read more by this author!
 A different take on Einstein and relativity August 17, 2004
Robert Adler (Santa Rosa, CA USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Because so much has been written about Einstein, it's not easy to come up with a fresh approach to him and his work. But that's what Bodanis has done, by tracing the history of each of the five symbols in the equation E = mc(2). Then Bodanis traces some of the implications of Einstein's work, from the Bomb to Black Holes.
Readers who are primarily interested in the personalities and dramas of science may like this book better than those interested in the science itself. Bodanis made a deliberate decision to keep the scientific content of the main part of the book light (too light for my taste), but then to put more meat into his extensive notes and web site. Call me old fashioned, but I don't want to have to go to an author's web site to get the full story.
Still, for anyone interested in Einstein and relativity, it's a worthwhile read.
Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation; and Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome
Interesting, anecdotal... and slightly flawed November 8, 2007
R. E. Statham (Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hate writing less than glowing reviews, but this almost excellent book disappointed me.
I was most impressed with this work- until I got almost to the very end. On the positive side, this is the first work I've read that clearly explains "the" equation in a manner even I could understand. It's done using a historical perspective using anecdotes. That makes most of the book a fun read.
Unfortunately, it's biased. In the closing portions of the book, when describing the use of the atomic bomb against Japan, it paints a very one-sided picture about our decision to use the bomb, only quoting sources who were (supposedly) opposed to its use. Some of the facts used were, simply put, stretched a bit, and others.... well, let's just say that my own reading and interviews with people involved paints a somewhat different picture. The author asserts that men such as Eisenhower, LeMay and others did not believe the bomb to be needed, and that's simply not true. The record itself shows that the controversy did not arise until much later- over 20 years later, to be exact.
When the author stays off of his soap box (as he does most of the time throughout the book), it's an excellent work. But I would caution any who read this work to take some of what is said regarding the use of the bomb against Japan with a grain of salt.
Human side of E=mc2 June 23, 2008
Poornachandran
Human side stories of E=mc2 with perfect blend of science, anecdotes, little biographies, humor, and tragedies for layman. Some of the stories are very interesting, hence I wouldn't forget the people and their contribution to science (relativity theory). Wondering why some of our science text books are not like this!
I am very impressed with the appendix containing the postscripts of the scientists contributed to E=mc2 some or the other way and very long list of "suggestion for further reading". I have already noted down some books from that list.
Overall, a very enjoyable read without a bit of feeling of a science book.
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