31 December 2008

Mathematicians decry Mariah Carey album cover


The album title is E=MC2 (with the 2 superscripted as in the famous mass/energy equation). This is supposed to stand for "Mariah Carey times two," but as written the 2 applies only to the C, so it "translates" as Mariah Carey Carey.

It should have been written E = 2(MC).

Not to be out-geeked, someone else has pointed out that the equation actually should be written as follows:
E^2= (m^2)(c^4) + (p^2)(c^2)

because it only simplifies to E=MC^2 for particles with no motion. You learn something every day.

3 comments:

  1. not time 2: to the second power, = maria carey x maria carey

    ReplyDelete
  2. WRONG. You wrote it should be E=2(MC) but in fact it should be E=(MC)² or E=(MC)^2. It's a power not a multiplier.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm quite fully aware off Einstein's equation and the meaning of superscripts. But you're missing the whole point of the album cover.

    They weren't trying to say "Mariah Carey" squared. They wanted to say (in a cute way) "Mariah Carey twice." What the graphics wound up saying was "Mariah Carey Carey".

    If you want to say that (MC)^2 also means Mariah Carey twice, that's fine, but someone else will argue that (MC)^2 is Maria Maria 2(MariahCarey) CareyCarey. All of this is totally unimportant because you don't square names.

    ReplyDelete

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