A letter penned by Albert Einstein wherein he wrote his famous E=mc² equation has been auctioned off for more than $1.2 million, according to Boston-based RR Auction on Friday.
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Only three other documented instances of Einstein penning the world-changing equation in his own hand are present, according to archivists at the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
According to RR Auction, this fourth example, the only one in a personal collection, was just a while back made public and was supposed to sell for about $400,000.
This is an important letter from both a holographic and a physics standpoint, according to Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, who calls the formula the most popular in the world.
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The formula — energy equals mass times the speed of light squared — altered physics by showing that time was not absolute and that mass and energy were identical.
Polish American physicist Ludwik Silberstein is the recipient of the hand-written letter in German of one page dated 26 Oct 1946.
Silberstein was a popular critic and adversary to some of the ideas of Einstein.
Your question can be answered from the E=mc² formula without any erudition, Einstein penned a letter on the Princeton University letterhead as per a description given by RR Auction.
The correspondence was in the private archive of Silberstein that was sold by his offspring.
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The buyer was only recognized by RR Auction as an anonymous document collector.
The letter’s rarity sparked a bidding battle, according to Livingston.
He said that at first, five parties were bidding vigorously, but after the offer hit about $700,000, it became a two-party game.
The auction started on May 13 and ended on Thursday.
