Voltaire's Riddle : Mathematical Association of America : 9780883853450 : 0883853450 : 30 Dec 2010 : Did you know that Voltaire was the first to publish the legend of Isaac Newton discovering gravity upon seeing an apple fall? That he tried for about eight years to be a mathematician? That in 1752 he wrote Micromégas, a story about a French expedition to the arctic (1736?7) whose purpose was to test Newton's controversial theories about gravity? This book is about that story and its underlying mathematics. Briefly, an alien giant visits the earth and encounters the expedition returning from north of the Baltic Sea. Their ensuing dialogue ranges from measurements of the very small to the very large, from gnats and micro-organisms to planets and stars, from man's tendency to make war to dreams of understanding his own spirit. At the end of their conversation, the giant gives man a book with the answers to all things. But when they open it, it is blank. That is the riddle of this book. Wh