ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 8, 1995                   TAG: 9509080064
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Albert Einstein's earliest manuscript on the theory of relativity is expected to go for an astronomical sum - again.

Sotheby's said it expects it will sell for $4 million to $6 million at the Dec. 11 sale. The manuscript already made history when it sold for $1.2 million in 1987.

The 72-page paper is a lengthy review of Einstein's special theory of relativity, demonstrating that time is not absolute and mass and energy are equivalent. The equation E mc2 - energy equals mass times the speed of light squared - appears in several different forms.

The hand-written manuscript was probably completed in 1912, but publication was put off by World War I. Einstein, using pencil and black and brown ink, riddled the text with numerous corrections, additions and deletions, as well as diagrams and formulas.



 by CNB