Re: the energy

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

On 19-Oct-04 Michael D. Edmiston wrote:

> Well... what exactly was the "big bang?"  Was it not some sort of big
> "conversion" of energy into matter and antimatter?  If not, where did
> the matter and antimatter come from?

In no way could I top or even equal David Bowman's answer.

> And what exactly does E=mc^2 mean?  Doesn't it mean mass and energy are
> equivalent?

No, it does not. It is one term (which must be suitably qualified)
in a function that quantifies the energy of an isolated physical
system. The terms in this function have been fashioned over a long
period of time by several contributors. This one, of course, is due
to Einstein. In its most useful form it should probably have a
nought subscript appended to the "m", denoting the rest energy.
Otherwise it is a trivial statement about the energy of any
isolated physical system, and no other terms are even necessary.

Leigh