Atticus Rare Books

Einstein's 1934 two-blackboard derivation of energy-mass equivalence (Topper and Vincent, pp. 978-983) WITH Scientist as Detective: Louis Alvarez and the pyramid burial chambers, the JFK assassination, and the end of the dinosaurs (Wohl, pp. 968-977) in American Journal of Physics 75 No. 11, November 2007 [FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS]

Topper, David; Vincent, David WITH Wohl, Charles G.

2007. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL PICTORIAL WRAPPERS OF A 2007 JOURNAL ISSUE WITH TWO INTERESTING ARTICLES: (1) In-depth article by Topper & Vincent on Einstein's 1934 presentation of the mathematical derivation of his famous E=MC2 equation. In doing their research, the authors discovered a previously unknown photograph showing Einstein, posed in front of a blackboard upon which he has written out the math that led him to his unification of mass and energy. Other than this photo, included with the article, there are no known surviving photos of the man and his equation. (2) Article by Wohl describing three brilliant investigations done by Luis Alvarez involving areas outside of particle physics, the field in which he was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize.

TOPPER & VINCENT PAPER: At a public lecture in 1934, 400 students attended a lecture by Einstein in which he presented his famous mass-energy equivalence equation: E=mc2. The authors discovered a photo, a halftone newspaper clipping of Einstein working his equation at one of two blackboards. Unfortunately, the photographers posed Einstein in front of the wrong blackboard; E=mc2 at the bottom of the other blackboard. The photo is fuzzy, but the authors were able to reconstruct the math on both blackboards.

The lecture is also “interesting from a historical and sociological point of view because, at the time, Einstein was at the height of his fame, the equivalence of energy and mass… His presence in Pittsburgh created much attention among the general public. Einstein exhibited his well-known intuitive style of using only the most important physical information in the zero-momentum frame derivation. His method was simple and direct and is relevant to those who teach the zero-momentum frame idea” (Topper & Vincent, 978).

WOHL PAPER: American physicist Luis Walter Alvarez (1911–1988) was “was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century. [In the paper offered here] his investigations of three mysteries, all of them outside his normal areas of research, show what remarkable things a far-ranging imagination working with an immense store of knowledge can accomplish” (Wohl, 968). In relation to the three subjects covered in this paper -- the pyramid burial chambers, the JFK assassination, and the end of the dinosaurs – Alvarez’s work was deeply imaginative. He used cosmic rays to search for hidden chambers in the pyramids [a paper we offer separately]; physics, optics, motion, forces, collisions, acoustics, and timing experimentation, etc. to study the Kennedy assassination; and developed the Alvarez hypothesis that dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid and the consequential decrease of solar radiation. In March 2010, an international panel of scientists endorsed the Alvarez’s asteroid hypothesis as the cause of the extinction.

Alvarez’s career was extraordinary and he played a part in one or another way in most important events of the 20th century. Involved with the Manhattan Project, he developed one of the atomic bomb detonators. He worked on sonar, radar, UFO investigations, image stabilization optics, cosmic rays, NASA and the Apollo program, Cold War activities and the Vietnam War. A pioneer in the use of the hydrogen bubble chamber to photograph the results of particle interactions, he also developed systems to analyze the interactions, then using these capabilities to discover families of new particles and resonance states. Alvarez was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chambers and data analysis” (Nobel Committee). Item #1410

CONDITION: Complete issue. 4to. Very, very light Colby College stamp on front wrap, otherwise bright and very clean inside and out. Near fine condition.

Price: $250.00