ABSTRACT
nuclear energy first entered man’s consciousness with the equation derived by Einstein from consideration of the laws of simple relativity. The equation said that matter in fast motion exhibited an extra inertial mass and that consequently mass and energy might be interconvertible. It equated one gram of mass to 9 x 1020 ergs or about the energy released by the explosion of 20,000 tons of TNT or the combustion of some 3,600 tons of coal. Because one gram of matter is so small an amount it was clear that an enormous potential source of energy might be locked in the matter of which we consist. This idea first appeared in the early 1920’s in the form of Einstein’s basic equation: E = Mc2 in which the energy E, is in ergs; the mass M, is in grams; and c is the velocity of light, namely 3 x 1010 centimeters per second.
