Voltaire’s Riddle - KU Leuvenroth.cs.kuleuven.be/w-ess/images/9/9c/VoltairesRiddle.pdf · 2011....
Transcript of Voltaire’s Riddle - KU Leuvenroth.cs.kuleuven.be/w-ess/images/9/9c/VoltairesRiddle.pdf · 2011....
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Voltaire’s Riddle
Micromégas and the measure of all
things
by
Andrew Simoson, MAA, 2010
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Chapters
• Giants in the literature
• Fractals
• Flatland
• Spherical geometry
• Celestial mechanics
• The number π
• Pursuit problem
• Hesiod’s Anvil
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Structure of the book
• Vignette: related to Voltaire
• Chapter: related to mathematics
• Exercises
Andrew Simoson
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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)
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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
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Pictures of Voltaire
24 41
55 80 Voltaire museum Geneva
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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.
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Maupertuis|La Condaminne
Maupertuis
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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.
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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
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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
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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