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
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