Micromégas

It could be discovered only by an observer who did not share the movement of the Earth- an observer on the Sun, for instance, or on a slow-moving planet like Jupiter or Saturn.

Micromégas would, before he left his planet to visit us, have been able to discover by optical means that our globe is shortened by several inches in the direction of its orbital movement, supposing that Voltaire's genial hero were provided with trigonometrical apparatus infinitely more delicate than that used by our surveyors and astronomers.

But when he reached the Earth, Micromégas, with all his precise apparatus, would have found it impossible to detect the contraction.

He would have been greatly surprised until he met Einstein and heard, as we shall hear, the explanation of the mystery.

I have, unfortunately, neither the time nor the space—it is here especially that space is relative and is constantly shortened by the flow of the pen—to give the dialogue which would have taken place between Micromégas and Einstein.

Perhaps, indeed, if we are to be faithful to the Voltairean original, the dialogue would have been very superficial, for, to speak confidentially, I believe that Voltaire never quite understood Newton, though he wrote much about him, and Newton was less difficult to understand than Einstein is.

Neither did Madame du Châtelet, for all the praise that has been lavished upon her translation of the immortal Principia.

It could be discovered only by an observer who did not share the movement of the Earth, an observer on the sun, for instance, or on a slow-moving planet like Jupiter or Saturn.

Micromegas would, before he left his planet to visit us, have been able to discover by optical means that our globe is shortened by several inches in the direction of its orbital movement, supposing that Voltaire's genial hero were provided with trigonometrical apparatus infinitely more delicate than that used by our surveyors and astronomers.

But when he reached the Earth, Micromegas, with all his precise apparatus, would have found it impossible to detect the contraction.

He would have been greatly surprised until he met Einstein and heard, as we shall hear, the explanation of the mystery.

I have, unfortunately, neither the time nor the space—it is here especially that space is relative and is constantly shortened by the flow of the pen—to give the dialogue which would have taken place between Micromegas and Einstein.

Perhaps, indeed, if we are to be faithful to the Voltairean original, the dialogue would have been very superficial.

For, to speak confidentially, I believe that Voltaire never quite understood Newton, though he wrote much about him, and Newton was less difficult to understand than Einstein is.