Einstein's Big Idea

Einstein's Big Idea

120 mins | Drama, Documentary | Oct. 11, 2005

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In "Einstein's Big Idea," NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing docudrama, NOVA illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unraveling the story of how it came to be.

Einstein's Big Idea

120 mins | Drama, Documentary | Oct. 11, 2005

Einstein's Big Idea
Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In "Einstein's Big Idea," NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing docudrama, NOVA illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unraveling the story of how it came to be.
IMDb rating 7.8
Producers ARTE, Tétra Média, Channel 4 Television, NDR
Original title Einstein's Big Idea
Directors Gary Johnstone
Writers David Bodanis, Gary Johnstone

Cast

Aidan McArdle

as Einstein

Anton Lesser

as Voltaire

Andrew Callaway

as Maupertuis

Julian Rhind-Tutt

as Antoine Lavoisier

Shirley Henderson

as Mileva Maric

Ty Glaser

as Marie Anne Lavoisier

Andy Crabbe

as Habicht

Samuel West

as Humphry Davy

Daniel D'Alessandro

as Algarotti

Brendan Fleming

as Hermann Einstein

Gregory Fox-Murphy

as Brande

Philip Herbert

as Count de Amerval

Chris Jenkinson

as Dr. Haller

Wolf Kahler

as Horlein

George Layton

as Emilie’s Father

Alex MacQueen

as Chater

Richard Mulholland

as Emilie’s Tutor

Stephen Noonan

as Marat

Christopher Eccleston

as Narrator (voice)

John Lithgow

as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition

Steven Robertson

as Michael Faraday

Christian Rubeck

as Otto Hahn

Emily Woof

as Lise Meitner

Ian Duncan

as Charles de Breteuil