His tone stays chatty and cheerfully enthusiastic through sketches of the various characters involved in the development of Einstein’s equation, technical explanations of each of its components, and discussions of the theoretical and practical applications. This paradox-that practically everyone can recite the formula, but hardly anyone understands it-spurred the author to write an accessible guide for nonscientists. “Everyone knows that E=mc2 is really important, but they usually don’t know what it means, and that’s frustrating, because the equation is so short that you’d think it would be understandable,” Oxford science lecturer Bodanis ( The Secret Family, 1997) confides in the preface. A readable history and explanation of the only physics equation that has taken on a life of its own in popular culture.
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