Everything is relative - in auctions as well as physics.
A description of the theory of relativity - E=mc2, or energy equals mass times the speed of light squared - handwritten by Albert Einstein, brought $1.2 million the last time it was sold. It's going on the auction block again and this time, nine years later, the mass of money it is expected to bring has grown to $6 million."Nine years, at least in this world, is an eternity," said David Redden, a senior vice president of marketing at Sotheby's.
The 72-page manuscript going up for bids March 16 is a lengthy review of what is now known as Einstein's special theory of relativity. The famous equation changed physics by demonstrating that time was not absolute and that mass and energy were equivalent.
The yellowing pages are covered with the scientist's meticulous penmanship, including neat corrections, diagrams and mathematical formulas. Einstein worked on it in 1912 for a journal whose publication was put off by World War I. It is the earliest existing manuscript of an Einstein paper.
The Einstein auction will be preceded by a sale of memorabilia from the Russian space program, including a Vostok space capsule.
For $1,000 to $1,500, according to Sotheby's, a space fan will be able to buy notes which reveal how the first manned space flight nearly turned to disaster.