Unit 20 New Frontiers
Lesson 3 Scientific Breakthroughs
PIONEERS OF SCIENCE
In the summer of 1905,
a young man was sitting at home
after a day's work.
While rocking his one-year-old baby,
he thought something over.
Suddenly, it came to him!
The equation "e=mc2" was born,
an equation which would change
our understanding of the universe
but would also help to create the nuclear bomb.
Albert Einstein was aware
of recent developments,
such as Marie Curie's research,
but he had been working on his own.
His world-famous equation showed
how a small piece of mass could produce
an unbelievable amount of energy.
Einstein then showed
in his "theory of relativity"
that not even time, mass or length
are constant - they change according
to our experience of them.
For example, if we could see people moving
at the speed of light,
they would appear much heavier
and larger and would seem to move very slowly.
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