On Friday, in Boston-based RR Auction, a letter hand-written by Albert Einstein in which he wrote about his famous E = mc2 equation was sold at auction for more than $1.2 million. The amount was about thrice more than it was expected to get.
According to Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, the letter found was an important manuscript from both, a holographic and a physics point of view. He stated this fact while calling the equation world’s most-famous.
Archivist’s point of view
Archivists present at the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem say there are only three other known and proved examples of Einstein writing the world-implying equation with his own hand. This fourth example, this only one in a private collection, became public recently.
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About the Letter
The equation which states: “energy = mass x the speed of light ‘squared”, changed the fundamentals of physics by demonstrating that time was not absolute and that mass and energy were equivalent. The one-page handwritten letter in German to Polish American physicist Ludwik Silberstein is dated back to Oct. 26, 1946.
Silberstein was a well-known critic and challenger to some of Einstein’s theories. The letter was part of Silberstein’s personal archives, which were sold by his descendants. The translation which was provided by the RR Auction said that, Einstein wrote in the letter which was written on Princeton University letterhead, “Your question can be answered from the E = mc2 formula, without any erudition.”
The versatility and the ancient firmness of the letter set off a bidding war. Five parties were bidding aggressively at first, but once the price saturated about $700,000, it became a two-party contest. The auction began on May 13 and concluded on Thursday May 20. The final buyer was identified by RR only as an anonymous document collector.
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Few Facts about Albert Einstein
Einstein’s on point scientific ideas made his name list high as a prodigy, but he was also famous for his pacifist views and support of the civil rights movement. Here are some of the famous facts about the physics prodigy:
Einstein never failed in Maths
He scored high grades during his school days in Munich, and was only tensed by what he used to describe as the “mechanical discipline” which was often demanded by his teachers.
As a part of their divorce settlement, he offered his wife his Nobel Prize
As part of their separation agreement, with his first wife Mileva Maric, Einstein promised her an annual stipend plus whatever money he might receive from the Nobel Prize which he was amazingly confident he would eventually win.
He was asked to be president of Israel
Though not traditionally religious, Einstein felt a deep connection to his Jewish heritage and often spoke out against anti-Semitism. He was never a Zionist, but when head of state Chaim Weizmann died back in 1952, the Israeli government offered to appoint him as the nation’s second president. But he later declined the offer.
