A letter penned by Albert Einstein in which he writes out his famous E=mc2 equation has sold at auction for more than 1.2 million dollars (£850,000), about three times more than it was expected to get. This fourth example – the only one in a private collection – only became public recently, according to Boston-based RR Auction, which had expected it to sell for about 400,000 dollars (£283,000). The letter was penned in 1946 and reportedly contains the only handwritten example of "E=mc2" in private possession. The one-page handwritten letter in German to Polish American physicist Ludwik Silberstein is dated October 26, 1946. “Your question can be answered from the E=mc2 formula, without any erudition,” Einstein wrote in the letter written on Princeton University letterhead, according to a translation provided by RR Auction.

Source: Irish Independent May 21, 2021 18:11 UTC