Voltaire’s Riddle

Micromégas and the measure of all

things

by

Andrew Simoson, MAA, 2010

Chapters

• Giants in the literature

• Fractals

• Flatland

• Spherical geometry

• Celestial mechanics

• The number π

• Pursuit problem

• Hesiod’s Anvil

Structure of the book

• Vignette: related to Voltaire

• Chapter: related to mathematics

• Exercises

Andrew Simoson

Voltaire

• 21-11-1694 François-Marie Arouet

• Witty writer/philosofer of the Enlightenment

• A rebel with a sharp pen; had to leave France

• Travelled and lived in England, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium

• Died 30-5-1778 in France

Voltaire (1694-1778) (age 24)

The name Voltaire

• Voltaire = anagram of AROVET LI (Arouet le jeune)

• Family castle in Poitou is Airvault

• Adopted the name Voltaire after imprisonment in Bastille 1719

Voltaire 70

Pictures of Voltaire

24 41

55 80 Voltaire museum Geneva

Newton

Cassini (Descartes)

•French Academy sent an expedition to measure one spatial degree along a meridian one near north pole and one near the equator •Louis Godin, Pierre Bouguer, Charles-Louis de La Condamine went to the Caribbean (Peru/Equador) •Pierre Louis Maupertuis, Alexis Clairaut, Réginald Outhier, Anders Celsius, et al went north (Finland) •50 yr later (1792) Legendre, Cassini, Méchain Delambre+Méchain measured Dunkirk-Barcelona, to define 1 m.

Maupertuis|La Condaminne

Maupertuis

Micromégas

• = SF Story by Voltaire (1752)

• Micromégas = huge giant from Sirius

(24.000 x avg. human)

• Picks up a dwarf-giant at Saturn

• They meet the French expedition on their way back from the arctic

• = satire of society of V’s days

• M. gives a book that contains the answers to everything

• It turns out that the book is empty

• What should have been in the book = Voltaire’s riddle.

Voltaire and mathematics

• La Condamine and Voltaire found a flaw in the state lottery (they bought as many cheap tickets as possible) and won for 6 months in a row.

• Back from England he lived in the Château de Cirey owned by the Marquis de Châtelet, and together with the Marquise Emilie they had a `ménage à trois’

• V.+E. collected 21.000 books

• V. tried to discover the elements of fire

Emilie de Châtelet

Voltaire and mathematics

• V. wrote Eléments de la Philosophie de Newton (1738)

• Bad reviews from French Académie.

• V. gave up to become a mathematician.

• E. translates Newton’s work in French

Chapters

• Giants in the literature

• Fractals

• Flatland

• Spherical geometry

• Celestial mechanics

• The number π

• Pursuit problem

• Hesiod’s Anvil Voltaire’s tomb in the Pantheon