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Equation 117 · Part 2 · The Clock That Comes Back Wrong by Exactly Its Mass

Symbol c^2

ΔE/c2≈3.167×10−36 kg\Delta E/c^2\approx3.167\times10^{-36}\,\mathrm{kg}
c2c^2

What this part means

The square of c: multiply c by itself.

Its job in the formula

c2c^2 is squared: multiply the underlying quantity by itself. The square is a mathematical operation, not a second independent variable.

The passage around this formula

To make this concrete without simulation, take the weak-field proper-time rate dτ\tau/dt≈\approx1+gz/c2c^2 for a static height z in Earth’s field, so that holding two branches at a height difference Δ\Delta z for coordinate time T gives Δ\Deltaτ\tau≈\approx g\,Δ\Delta z\,T/c2c^2 . For Δ\Delta z=1\,m\mathrm m and T=1\,s\mathrm s , Δ\Deltaτ\tau≈\approx1.090×\times10^{-16}\,s\mathrm s . Pair this with a single-photon optical clock transition near 698\,nm\mathrm{nm} , comparable to the transition used in strontium-lattice-clock proposals for this kind of experiment [ 11 , 13 ] , giving Δ\Deltaν\nu≈\approx4.295×\times10^{14}\,Hz\mathrm{Hz} and Δ\Delta E=hΔ\Deltaν\nu≈\approx2.846×\times10^{-19}\,J\mathrm J , a mass excess Δ\Delta…

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Learn the underlying idea

An exponent tells how a base is used in multiplication. In x³, x is the base and 3 is the exponent: x³ = x × x × x.

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See this notation across published equations →

Sources cited in the article section

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