# Did Einstein or someone else coin E = mc^2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859 "2005-04-05T16:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/21 "2005-04-06T21:56:27Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > I’ll agree that DePretto should be relegated to the footnote department. > > Well, with that matter settled, I notice you have carefully avoded Johnny L.A.'s assertion that > _“… the whole theory was devised by an African-German lesbian.”_ > > That claim is a little tougher to discredit than Mr De Pretto’s isn’t it? 😃 Ya got me there. The pair of you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/22 "2005-04-09T13:52:25Z")
Even if you don’t ordinarily do crossword puzzles, the odds are good that you’ll get a bang out of the one in tomorrow’s NY Times - their Sunday puzzle. Hell, you might even break out in a smile. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/23 "2005-04-09T15:39:30Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Just out of curiosity why would any publisher be concerned about copyright during a war? I confess I do not know the legalities of it all but it seems if you are at war with another country you are well set to rip off anything of theirs you want with little worries they will be seeking you out to sue you. Because when your country goes to war with another country, it’s the countries that are at war. The citizens of that other country don’t automatically lose all their legal rights. It could happen, if the legislature of your country passed a law to stip the citizens of the other country of their rights, but in the absence of such a law, the citizens of the other country still have legal rights. International conventions don’t apply automatically domestically - they have to be implemented by domestic legislation. In the case of copyright, that means that the British Parliament had passed a copyright act to implement the Berne Convention. Unless the British Parliament had expressly amended its copyright laws during the war to strip German citizens of their legal rights under the act, then a German citizen could sue for copyright infringement, by instructing counsel to bring the action in the British courts. The fact that Britain and Germany were at war would not give a private publisher the right to break the British copyright act and infringe on the legal rights of a private German citizen. So suppose a British publisher publishes Einstein’s works during WWI without his permission. Einstein could go to a neutral country, like Switzerland, that still had communications with Britain, and going through Swiss counsel, instruct counsel in Britain to bring an action to enforce his copyright. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/24 "2005-04-09T21:21:34Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > In all seriousness, Einstein wasn’t alone in developing the theory. There’s some evidence that his wife at the time helped him with it, I’ve looked over the evidence, as far as I know it, and I haven’t seen any evidence that his wife was responsible for any part of the theory. She was a fellow physics student, but Einstein discussed his work with all the students–as do many modern scientists. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/25 "2005-04-11T02:16:06Z")
Well, I guess you all missed the Sunday NY Times puzzle. The observation (by 67 Down) was: “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” 2 Down: Proposed by 67 Down: Theory of relativity. 82 Across: Famed statement by 67 Down: e = mc2 (The constructor couldn’t do a ², because the intersecting answer was Tea for 2.) And 67 Down was: Albert Einstein ---
**Author:** ![charizard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charizard/32/4166_2.png) [@charizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charizard)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/26 "2005-04-11T19:40:23Z")
> [@Antiochus](#): > > 82 Across: Famed statement by 67 Down: e = mc2 (The constructor couldn’t do a ², because the intersecting answer was Tea for 2.) Forget the ², I just want to know if anything intersected with the ‘=’ ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859/27 "2005-04-11T19:53:42Z")
> [@charizard](#): > > Forget the ², I just want to know if anything intersected with the ‘=’ Yes. The ‘m’ in “for time is so”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-einstein-or-someone-else-coin-e-mc-2/297859.md?page=1)