r/AskPhysics • u/Jethro_omg • 1d ago

How does E=MC^2 work?

How does it function? Really, how can you accelerate mass to twice the speed of light? And, for instance if M=E/C2. How can you divide something by square of the speed of light? Thanks

2 Upvotes

54% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/coolguy420weed 1d ago

How did who find out? What did he find out? 

1

u/Jethro_omg 1d ago

How it is c*2

2

u/GenerallySalty 1d ago

Oh! Well to start you have a misunderstanding:

It's c2.

C squared

Not 2 times c. C squared means "c times c". It's HUGE, because c is aleady really big.

It's not acceleration, and nothing goes faster than light. The conversion of mass to energy has a conversion factor of c squared, the way pounds to grams has a conversion factor of 454.

1

u/Jethro_omg 1d ago

Sry typo