Voltaire's Riddle

Andrew Simoson

ISBN 10: 0883853450 / ISBN 13: 9780883853450

Published by Mathematical Association of America, US, 2010

About this Item

In 1752 Voltaire published Micromégas, the story of a 120,000-foot tall resident of a planet of Sirius who visited our solar system. As a parting gift, the visitor gave the French Academy of Sciences a book that, he said, contained the answer to all things. On examination, the book was found to be blank. This is the riddle: why was it blank? Voltaire's Riddle contains a new translation of the story and continues with a series of chapters, each of which begins with a historical or literary vignette followed by the mathematics behind it. Topics include trajectories of comets, the flattening of the Earth at the poles, Maupertius's pursuit problem, Dürer's possible use of trochoids, and the precession of the equinoxes. The book ends with possible answers to Voltaire's riddle. Readers need know little more than calculus.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780883853450

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Voltaire's Riddle
• Publisher: Mathematical Association of America, US
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0883853450
• ISBN 13: 9780883853450
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 650 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In 1752 Voltaire published Micromégas, the story of a 120,000-foot tall resident of a planet of Sirius who visited our solar system. As a parting gift, the visitor gave the French Academy of Sciences a book that, he said, contained the answer to all things. On examination, the book was found to be blank. This is the riddle: why was it blank? Voltaire's Riddle contains a new translation of the story and continues with a series of chapters, each of which begins with a historical or literary vignette followed by the mathematics behind it. Topics include trajectories of comets, the flattening of the Earth at the poles, Maupertius's pursuit problem, Dürer's possible use of trochoids, and the precession of the equinoxes. The book ends with possible answers to Voltaire's riddle. Readers need know little more than calculus.

About the Author

Andrew Simoson earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics under Leonard Asimow at the University of Wyoming in 1979, working on extensions of separating theorems in functional analysis. Since then, he has been chairman of the mathematics department at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, and has authored over thirty papers in various mathematical journals. He has twice been a Fulbright professor, at the University of Botswana, 1990–91, and at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, 1997–98.