E = mc²

The title, E = mc2 by itself already explains a bit of what the author wanted to convey in this volume. In his book, David Bodanis, a professor at Oxford University, describes the famous relativity formula of the German physicist (1879-1955). The narrative is not just a biography of the scientist, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Nor is it a physics textbook in which Bodanis attempts to explain the theory of relativity step-by-step—something many readers would find difficult due to its complexity. Instead, the author uses mathematical letters and symbols in the simplest way to highlight the most compelling scientific discoveries. A subject that might have been boring in high school, Bodanis manages to transform into a fascinating and easy-to-understand event.

In this exciting historical journey, where entire encyclopedias have been written to explain relativity, the university professor divides the chapters so that readers and scholars can easily follow the subheadings. He also remembers some of the famous and historical figures who contributed to Albert Einstein’s formula. He approaches the meaning of the equation with confidence and, through a concise representation, explains the book's title: the E stands for energy; the = sign remains the same as in mathematics; the m is for mass; the c is based on the speed of light, while the final number 2 represents the process of squaring, which then produces the effect of the product. In other words, it is like the result of something seen through a magnifying glass.

Once the equation was consolidated without variation, the author recalls that it served as support for the deeper studies of several people, such as: Marie Curie and her early experiments with radioactivity; Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the structure of the atom; and Enrico Fermi, who delved into the atom's nucleus. From Rutherford and Fermi, we reach Lise Meitner, who perceived the splitting of the atom. All these individuals studied and worked intensely to achieve what would be the violent effect of a chemical bomb.

Once the representation of relativity and the people who supported the equation are briefly narrated, a race against time in the face of unstoppable global destruction is described: the race to develop the atomic bomb. An act that would change the world irrevocably, as the energy of mass, when condensed and concentrated under the right circumstances, is released as an alternative form of mass and destroys everything within its range of action.
The ingenuity of the scientist's equation was demonstrated pragmatically with the destruction of Hiroshima. Furthermore, before reaching the catastrophic effect of the bomb, Bodanis reminds us that it was inevitable to mention the precursors who supported the formula that marked the 20th century. He mentions, for example, the names of Maxwell, Faraday, and the French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier. Perhaps these pioneers did not achieve Einstein's level of popularity, but it is certain that their contributions were equally essential for the physicist to be able to intensify and definitively establish the equation: E = mc2.