In 1752 Voltaire published Micromegas, 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, Durer'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.

An exploration of Voltaire's Micromegas which presents the mathematics behind the polar expedition and suggests some answers to Voltaire's riddle.

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.


Book Information
ISBN 9780883853450
Author Andrew Simoson
Format Hardback
Page Count 396
Imprint Mathematical Association of America
Publisher Mathematical Association of America
Weight(grams) 650g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 157mm * 24mm