The article traces the way Einstein formulated the relation between energy and mass in his work from 1905 to 1955. Einstein emphasized quite often that the mass m of a body is equivalent to its rest energy E₀. At the same time, he frequently resorted to the less clear-cut statement of the equivalence of energy and mass. As a result, Einstein’s formula E₀ = mc² still remains much less known than its popular form, E = mc², in which E is the total energy equal to the sum of the rest energy and the kinetic energy of a freely moving body. One of the consequences of this is the widespread fallacy that the mass of a body increases when its velocity increases and even that this is an experimental fact. As wrote the playwright A N Ostrovsky “Something must exist for people, something so austere, so lofty, so sacrosanct that it would make profaning it unthinkable.”

PACS: 01.10.Fv, 05.70.Fh, 75.40.−s (all) DOI: 10.1070/PU2008v051n05ABEH006538 URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2008/5/g/ 000259376200007 2-s2.0-51649086688 2008PhyU...51..513O Citation: Okun L B "The Einstein formula: E0 = mc2. "Isn't the Lord laughing?"" Phys. Usp. 51 513–527 (2008) BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks Оригинал: Окунь Л Б «Формула Эйнштейна: E0 = mc2. „Не смеётся ли Господь Бог“?» УФН 178 541–555 (2008); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0178.200805g.0541