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The formula defines the energy E of a particle in its rest frame as the product of mass (m) with the speed of light squared (c 2). Because the speed of light is a large number in everyday units (approximately 300 000 km/s or 186 000 mi/s), the formula implies that a small amount of mass corresponds to an enormous amount of energy.
This equation holds for a body or system, such as one or more particles, with total energy E, invariant mass m 0, and momentum of magnitude p; the constant c is the speed of light. It assumes the special relativity case of flat spacetime [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and that the particles are free.
The photon's energy is converted to particle mass in accordance with Einstein's equation, E = mc 2; where E is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light. The photon must have higher energy than the sum of the rest mass energies of an electron and positron (2 × 511 keV = 1.022 MeV, resulting in a photon wavelength of 1.2132 pm ) for the ...
The standard Compton wavelength λ of a particle of mass is given by =, where h is the Planck constant and c is the speed of light. The corresponding frequency f is given by f = m c 2 h , {\displaystyle f={\frac {mc^{2}}{h}},} and the angular frequency ω is given by ω = m c 2 ℏ . {\displaystyle \omega ={\frac {mc^{2}}{\hbar }}.}
The difference in mass can be calculated by the Einstein equation, E = mc 2, where E is the nuclear binding energy, c is the speed of light, and m is the difference in mass. This 'missing mass' is known as the mass defect, and represents the energy that was released when the nucleus was formed. [1]
It is common in particle physics, where units of mass and energy are often interchanged, to express mass in units of eV/c 2, where c is the speed of light in vacuum (from E = mc 2). It is common to informally express mass in terms of eV as a unit of mass, effectively using a system of natural units with c set to 1. [3]
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour).
Einstein's special theory is not the only theory that combines a form of light speed constancy with the relativity principle. A theory along the lines of that proposed by Heinrich Hertz (in 1890) [17] allows for light to be fully dragged by all objects, giving local c-constancy for all physical observers.