E = mc²
This formula of Einstein appears in September 1905 and it is maybe the most famous equation about Physics.
This equality is a sentence, a proposition.
But it is not written in our ordinary language, daily talking,
the one with which we say “this table is green” or “i go out to buy bread”.
the one with which we say “this table is green” or “i go out to buy bread”.
It is written in a particular language, a formalized language, useful for physics.
It's necessary to understand it, a translation in our daily language
and that this translation could be possibile is obvious and It has also been demonstrated
by Kurt Gödel, the most prominent logical of our time, and Wittgenstein.
and that this translation could be possibile is obvious and It has also been demonstrated
by Kurt Gödel, the most prominent logical of our time, and Wittgenstein.
Let's go to read, sign by sign, our formula.
E : represents the mechanical energy, potential +kinetics
M : represents the rest mass, expressed in kilograms
C : represents the speed of light, expressed in m/s,
usually approximated to 300.000.000 m/s (3 x 108 m/s).
Therefore c2 = 9 × 1016 m/s
Meantime it is an equation, of equality, and means that all what is written
Mass and energy are, says this formula, two faces of the same coin one
is an enormous compression of the second, and the second one
is an enormous given off of the first.
is an enormous compression of the second, and the second one
is an enormous given off of the first.
Then mass and energy are the same thing.
Yes but, this same thing, that they are, what does it is?
We can define mass in function of the energy, energy in function of the mass, we can affirm
that we are talking about two different states of the same thing.
But of what?
Einstein’s formula tell us that the universe is made by just one thing, and that the thing, is absolutely mysterious.
Einstein’s formula is the highest expression of our reason, of our speech
And advert, with silence, the abyss beside which we live and move.
What it is. The Universe.
Now if we step back 2500 years, we read what Parmenides wrote:
« So will just be words what mortals have established
sure that it was true: born and perishing, being and non-being
changes of places and mutation of bright color »
( Parmenides, frammenti – Diels).
Parmenides tell us here that being and not being are only words established by mortals.
For Parmenides being is a symbolic product of our intellect an attribute, a quality, not a substance.
“Believing to be true " indicates tu us, as a reference, the truth, Truth, goddess Alètheia.
At what refers Parmenides?
To all, to the universe. Truth is the universe.
The world as a whole we can not say nor reason above, is the mystic.
And this truth, graspable at signals only through the intuitive faculty,
never through rational thought, much less we can get with experience,
with touching things a closed street to any result.
never through rational thought, much less we can get with experience,
with touching things a closed street to any result.
Parmenides and Einstein say the same thing.
Rational thinking conversational speaks only of what we can talk.
The rest is silent.
The abyss between logos and the universe appears to us outside our talking.
This view, shared by two men separated by 2500 years shows us also the
inconsistency of the historicistic and evolutionary view of human thought
that would range from rough to elegant.
But doesen’t look like.
inconsistency of the historicistic and evolutionary view of human thought
that would range from rough to elegant.
But doesen’t look like.
Massimo Pistone
