Topsy-Turvy · Chapter
Very Short, Since Enough Has Been Said to Make the World’s Population Feel Perfectly Sure Again explained
The chapter reassures the global population that the dangerous plan to shift the Earth's axis has been definitively disproven by Alcide Pierdeux's calculations.
What happens
The chapter reassures the global population that the dangerous plan to shift the Earth's axis has been definitively disproven by Alcide Pierdeux's calculations. President Barbicane and Captain Nicholl will not resume the enterprise, and J.T. Maston's miscalculations are rendered moot. The laws of mechanics show that even with melimelonite, an impossible number of cannons would be needed, so humanity cannot alter the Earth's motion, and the natural order established by the Creator remains unchanged.
Themes in this chapter
Scientific Hubris
The chapter concludes that humanity's attempt to modify the Earth's axis is futile, underscoring the limits of scientific ambition.
Progress and Its Consequences
The failed enterprise highlights the potential dangers of unchecked progress and the need to respect natural boundaries.
Characters to notice
- President Barbicane
Mentioned as not resuming the enterprise.
- Capt. Nicholl
Mentioned as not resuming the enterprise.
- J. T. Maston
Mentioned as not figuring out any further calculations.
- Alcide Pierdeux
His article is credited with proving the impossibility of the plan.
Key passages
“President Barbicane and Capt. Nicholl will not again begin that enterprise so woefully miscarried, J. T. Maston will not again figure out any calculations, however free from mistakes.”
Barbicane and Nicholl will not restart the failed project, and Maston will not produce any new calculations, even if they are correct.
Summarizes the abandonment of the axis-shifting plan.
“What the law of mechanics proves to us is that to produce a displacement of the axis of 23 degrees and 28 minutes, even with the melimelonite, a trillion cannons similar to the one which had been bored into the cliff of Kilimanjaro would be necessary.”
Mechanical laws show that shifting the axis by 23 degrees and 28 minutes would require a trillion cannons like the one at Kilimanjaro, even using melimelonite.
Explains the mathematical impossibility of the scheme.
“It is not meet that mere humanity should change anything in the order established by our Creator in the system of the universe.”
It is inappropriate for humans to alter the divine order of the universe.
Reinforces the theme of humility before natural and divine law.