高中二年级英语(人教版)上册 Unit 1 Integrating Skills 2

　　ALBERT EINSTEIN

　　When Stephen Hawking was writing A Brief History of Time, his editors told him that he would lose half of his readers for each equation (方程式) he put in the book. Despite this warning, Hawking found it necessary to include one equation. His choice was the world's most famous equation, Albert Einstein's E = mc2. As simple as the equation may seem, it represents a theory so important that it changed science and physics completely. In fact, Einstein's discoveries made such a big difference that he felt he had to apologise to Newton. "Forgive me," Einstein wrote, "you found the only way which, in your age, was just about possible for a man of highest thought and creative power." Einstein had replaced Newton's theories with his own and changed our understanding of the universe.

　　Before Einstein, scientists believed that light travelled through space in a straight line. But Einstein was able to prove that light coming from the stars was bent as it passed the sun. As a result, it appeared to scientists on earth that the stars had moved. He worked out just how much the light would be bent; he could also work out how far the stars would appear to have moved.

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