Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and educational
Review: This book wasn't about relativity as much as how the discoveries were made that lead to Einstein's theory. It also talks about the significance of the equation without getting very deep into the math and physics.I very much enjoyed reading about the scientists over the past several hundred years who made contributions that lead to this theory. If you want a general idea of what relativity is (without a lot of math) as well as a historical survey of science then this book would be an excellent read. I have one suggestion for improvement. I would have liked some illustrations to help me visualize some of the experiments he describes.
Rating:
Summary: A Quick and Easy Read
Review: I read David Bodanis's _E=mc2_ yesterday on an airplane. I loved it completely. As a recently graduated history major, I appreciated Bodanis's approach to this complex and often confusing equation. We all know it's important, but What Does It Mean?\
From the very beginning Bodanis's writing style sucks you in. He starts by breaking down the equation into 5 chapters, each focusing on a different portion of the equation. For instance, one chapter is dedicated to 'E', or Energy. Another to the '=' symbol and another to the 'm' and so on... Giving the history behind each symbol and discussing people who played a vital role in the furthering of information in that field, Bodanis gives easy to understand and often entertaining look at history and science.
After the equation is explained (so that even most science-ignorant people can understand it) then there is more discussion on Einstein, how he came up with it and the immediate effects of his discovery (hint: nobody really paid any attention at first...). Finally, there is a good portion dedicated to the scientific discoveries that came about as a result of Einstein's famous equation.
At the end of the text is a nice follow-up for most of the historical figures mentioned in the book, detailing the rest of their life in a quick paragraph or two. There is also an extensive Bibliography and Notes section. The Notes section is especially nice because it's not just source information, but often time Bodanis's personnal comments on things.
All-in-all, this is a great book. It's definately one to give to the kids, your siblings, parents and friends. History is an exciting subject and I'm glad to see that somebody has infused a book with this amount of joy and excitement.
Rating:
Summary: A lucid, interesting, and concise explanation of e = mc2
Review: A lucid, interesting, and concise explanation of Einstein's famous equation. The biography of an idea: a wonderful approach to a fascinating and important topic. The idea is Einstein's famous equation: E = mc2. The equation expresses a fundamental principle of the universe (as presently constituted). The principle existed long before Einstein discovered it -- or had the idea. This book is an intellectual history of how the idea was born with emphasis on the people involved and how events in their lives contributed to the culmination of the concept and its application to our twentieth century world and future of the universe. A remarkably fast read for a book about a scientific subject, which attests to the author's skill in reducing a technical subject to an easily understood narrative of historical and cultural events as they impacted on the discovery that energy is matter and matter is energy. This is not The Theory of Relativity For Dummies; the work is very rich in historical, political, and cultural perspective and is exceptionally resourceful in its endnotes and appendix. In spite of its usefulness as a text, it is not technical and can be understood without any background in astrophysics or math. While not for children, I would highly recommend it as a very worthwhile introductory book and motivating challenge for precocious ones with a fascination about space and astronomy.
Rating:
Summary: You needn't have a PHD
Review: This is an extremely readable book on a subject that at first glance might seem intimidating. It does not spend much time on the intricisies of atomic science but, instead, is truly a history of what led up to this incredibly influential equation, who were the folks involved, and its uses beyond the bomb. Anyone interested in science will find it an engrossing read. Some "Gee-whiz" facts like how much energy is released in the fusion process and how much hydrogen the sun burns up keep the reader engaged. You can buy this for anyone from a high schooler to any scientificly curious adult. Highly recomended.
Rating: 
Summary: A perfectly dreadful book
Review: The best thing I can say about this incoherent, confused and ignorant book is that it is bad from the beginning. One need read only a few pages to discover that there is no point in reading any more. I read the first 80 pages, out of cussedness, but gave up when I read that alpha radiation does not decrease the mass (he says "weight") of the radiating object. There are errors like that on every page.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Story
Review: The book reveals the biography of E=mc2. As a biography, it starts with the origins of E, =, m, c, and 2. The story describes how these terms came together in a single equation and how the equation has affected human events. Through it all, the reader gains an understanding of the people involved--their successes, betrayals, and beheadings. Who knew that 'spin doctors' were practicing their craft as early as the 1600s? It is a great and very human story.
Rating:
Summary: out of this world
Review: i have been a long time fan of bodanis's entertaining way of exposing (i.e. the human body or the garden) the mundane in novel ways; this time around, he exposes the abstract in a marvelously mundane way. i finally understand the basics of e=mc2. i thank him so much. this book is a gem of a biography of the equation that we know but don't know. physics and the scientists behind the formulation come to life in exciting, vivid, anecdotal ways. i simply didn't want this book to end. now, can we ever really say that about other books on physics and science? i haven't taken a calculus class in 25 years, but i was able to follow the reasoning and narrative flow with great ease. the hard stuff is thoughtfully stuck in the back in an appendix that is almost one half the length of the main section. bodanis has cracked this subject matter with perfect skill. and yes, i felt energized reading this book. hence, einstein's equation lives in yet another dimension!
Rating: 
Summary: Lighting the Square
Review: Unbeknownst to their authors, almost all books on 'physics for the layperson'are maddeningly frustrating for the average reader. That's because they all, without exception, restate certain fundamental physics concepts without really explaining them in detail. (The authors would probably counter-argue that that is the nature of our quantum world, right? Gaps without explanation.) But nevertheless, those of us who are unschooled in these matters need step-by-baby-step instructions. Bodanis' book commits the same error with respect to electricity and magnetism (a disembodied wire of some sort goes 'round a setup magnet, somehow suggesting a field; then the wire gets connected to a 'battery' of some sort- what kind I don't know, is it the potato of my elementary school yore, or what,--anyway, and voila! the field,--again, whatever that is--is proven. But wait a minute, I thought a battery, if not the potato variety, WAS an advanced electrical device already?) If you don't know what electricity or magnetism is, as I don't, this description of Farady's experiment is truly baffling. Additionally, Bodanis does what all other physics writers do in describing the effects of lightspeed, and that is to state the following: at once objects gain mass and look bigger, but appear foreshortened, smaller, and slower. BUT WHY AND HOW CAN THEY APPEAR BOTH?? He simply states these two contradictory effects in adjoining paragraphs without explanation. But the saving grace of this book is, indeed, its explanation of c squared. Again, it may surprise the experts that the uninitiated have wondered for years why, if nothing can go faster than the speed of light, there's that c squared in the equation - if nothing indeed can go faster than c, how in the world (or outside it even) can something go c squared?? Conventional explanation of c squared--that it's a "really big number" and that it's "just a conversion factor" have been heretofore singularly unsatisfactory. Bodanis finally explains it, and for that I am grateful. The description of the heavy water factory in Norway and its destruction are fascinating as well, in addition to anecdotes about Einstein that I hadn't heard before. Herr Bodanis indeed. Herr PROFESSOR Bodanis - thanks for writing this book.
Rating:
Summary: I never understood why until now
Review: We all learned "E=mc squared" in school. After reading Mr. Bodanis' book, however, I finally understand WHY. In terms easily understood by the non-physicist, he's laid out the origins of what's arguably the most famous equation in history, and how it came to Einstein. Also included is biographical information on several physicists, from Newton and even before. Suddenly these men and women are not just entries in the encyclopedia. They had lives and loves and egos and were susceptible to all manner of human behavior. I highly recommend this book both for its historical and entertainment value.
Rating:
Summary: Heard the author interviewed this morning
Review: I just heard an interview with the author this morning, November 12, 2000 on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio station here in Montreal. I have put the book on my wish list based on hearing him. Sounds like an exceptionally lucid teacher. I would rate the short talk on radio at 5 out of 5. The actual rating for the book will have to wait.... A few months later: Well the book did not disappoint. The historical perspective given by the author is well researched, going back to biographical information on scientists of the past that created the foundation for the insights of Albert Einstein.
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