Video Discussion: Einstein's Most Famous Equation

In 1905, Einstein published four papers that radically changed how we look at the world around us. Dubbed Einstein’s “Annus Mirabilis,” or “Year of Wonders,” it gave us revolutionary new ideas about light, atoms and how your frame of reference makes a big difference in your perception. 

But it was Einstein’s final paper that year that really took the cake. In it, he gave us a deceptively simple idea—that mass and energy were equivalent. He even summed it up for us with the tiny equation E=mc^2.

Video by Chris Smith for Symmetry magazine.