Einstein's Big Idea

Einstein's Big Idea (2005)

The story behind the world's most famous equation, E = mc2

  • Genre: Documentary, Drama
  • Release Date: 2005-10-11
  • User Rating: 7.2/10 from 14 ratings
  • Runtime: 2h 0min
  • Language: English
  • Production Company: ARTE
  • Production Country: France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America
  • Director: Gary Johnstone
star 7.2/10
From 14 Ratings

Summary

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In "Einstein's Big Idea," NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing docudrama, NOVA illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unraveling the story of how it came to be.

Einstein's Big Idea Trailer

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  • Aidan McArdle

    as Einstein
  • Anton Lesser

    as Voltaire
  • Andrew Callaway

    as Maupertuis
  • Julian Rhind-Tutt

    as Antoine Lavoisier
  • Shirley Henderson

    as Mileva Maric
  • Ty Glaser

    as Marie Anne Lavoisier
  • Andy Crabbe

    as Habicht
  • Samuel West

    as Humphry Davy
  • Daniel D'Alessandro

    as Algarotti
  • Brendan Fleming

    as Hermann Einstein
  • Gregory Fox-Murphy

    as Brande
  • Philip Herbert

    as Count de Amerval
  • Chris Jenkinson

    as Dr. Haller
  • Wolf Kahler

    as Horlein
  • George Layton

    as Emilie’s Father
  • Alex MacQueen

    as Chater
  • Richard Mulholland

    as Emilie’s Tutor
  • Stephen Noonan

    as Marat
  • Christopher Eccleston

    as Narrator (voice)
  • John Lithgow

    as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
  • Steven Robertson

    as Michael Faraday
  • Christian Rubeck

    as Otto Hahn
  • Emily Woof

    as Lise Meitner
  • Ian Duncan

    as Charles de Breteuil
Directing Gary Johnstone Director
Writing David Bodanis Writer
Writing Gary Johnstone Writer
Directing Nick Justin First Assistant Director

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