Can a price be put on the secrets of the universe? Sure, if the setting is Sotheby’s Manhattan auction block. Last week a handwritten manuscript in which Albert Einstein laid out his “special” theory of relativity was sold to an unidentified bidder for $1.16 million — a record for a manuscript at a U.S. auction.
Done in black ink and pencil around 1912, the 72-page document has notes and corrections. In one spot Einstein wrote EL=mc 2 (L was a value that turned out to be 1) and then changed it to his famous E=mc 2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared).
The document is a rarity because Einstein discarded most manuscripts after they were published. In this case, publication was delayed by World War I. In the meantime, Einstein put aside the work and began to incorporate its ideas into a general theory of relativity.
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