Contents (view Concise Listing)

• x •  Cartoon • (1947) • interior artwork by Abner Dean
• xii • Introduction (The Mathematical Magpie) • essay by Clifton Fadiman
• 2 •  Cartoon • (1955) • interior artwork by Alan Dunn
• 3 • The Feeling of Power • (1958) • short story by Isaac Asimov
• 15 • The Law • (1947) • short story by Robert M. Coates
• 20 • The Appendix and the Spectacles • (1928) • short story by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
• 33 • Paul Bunyan Versus the Conveyor Belt • (1949) • short story by William Hazlett Upson
• 36 • The Pacifist • [Tales from the White Hart] • (1956) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 48 • The Hermeneutical Doughnut • [C. P. Ransom • 13] • (1954) • short story by H. Nearing, Jr.
• 70 • Star, Bright • (1952) • novelette by Mark Clifton
• 97 • F Y I • (1953) • short story by James Blish
• 107 • The Vanishing Man • (1926) • short story by Richard Hughes
• 111 • The Nine Billion Names of God • (1953) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 121 • Three Mathematical Diversions • (1958) • essay by Raymond Queneau
• 127 • The Wonderful World of Figures • (1961) • essay by Corey Ford
• 131 • A, B and C—The Human Element in Mathematics • (1910) • short story by Stephen Leacock
• 136 •  B.C. • (1961) • interior artwork by Johnny Hart
• 137 • A Note on the Einstein Theory • non-genre • (1923) • short story by Max Beerbohm
• 141 • The Achievement of H.T. Wensel • (1960) • short story by H. Allen Smith
• 143 • Needed: Feminine Math • (1961) • essay by Parke Cummings
• 144 • Life in California Department • (1961) • essay by Parke Cummings
• 145 •  Cartoon • (1958) • interior artwork by Alfred Frueh
• 146 • Two Extracts • non-genre • short fiction by Mark Twain
• 148 • Mathematics for Golfers • (1922) • essay by Stephen Leacock
• 153 • The Mathematician's Nightmare: The Vision of Professor Squarepunt • (1954) • short story by Bertrand Russell
• 159 • Milo and the Mathemagician • (1961) • short story by Norton Juster
• 178 •  Alligator Walking Line • (1960) • interior artwork by Saul Steinberg
• 179 • Sixteen Stones • (1955) • short story by Samuel Beckett
• 186 • O'Brien's Table • (1951) • short story by J. L. Synge
• 191 • The Abominable Mr. Gunn • (1955) • short story by Robert Graves
• 196 • Coconuts • (1926) • short story by Ben Ames Williams
• 215 • Euclid and the Bright Boy • short story by J. L. Synge
• 219 • The Purse of Fortunatus • (1889) • short story by Lewis Carroll
• 222 •  Man in Cube • (1960) • interior artwork by Saul Steinberg
• 223 • The Symbolic Logic of Murder • (1960) • short story by John Reese
• 240 •  Cartoon • (1961) • interior artwork by James Frankfort
• 241 • The Square of the Hypotenuse • (1958) • poem by Saul Chaplin and Johnny Mercer
• 241 • The Square of the Hypotenuse • (1958) • essay by Saul Chaplin
• 245 • The Ta Ta • poem by Joseph Charles Holbrooke and Sidney H. Sime
• 245 • The Ta Ta • essay by Joseph Charles Holbrooke
• 252 •  Question Mark on a Seesaw • (1960) • interior artwork by Saul Steinberg
• 253 • Apothem • (1959) • essay by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg [as by George Christoph Lichtenberg]
• 254 • Apothem • (1945) • essay by G. Polya
• 254 • Apothem • essay by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
• 255 • Apothem • (1930) • essay by Winston S. Churchill [as by Winston Churchill]
• 255 • Apothem • essay by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [as by Goethe]
• 255 • Apothem • (1945) • essay by George Orwell
• 255 • Apothem • essay by Jules Renard
• 255 • Apothem • (1896) • essay by Lewis Carroll
• 256 • Apothem • essay by Anonymous
• 256 • Apothem • (1959) • essay by Bill Mortlock
• 256 • Apothem • essay by Etienne Bonnot de Condillac
• 256 • Apothem • (1872) • essay by Augustus De Morgan
• 256 • Apothem • (1715) • essay by J. B. Mencken
• 257 • Euler, Diderot, Algebra and God • (1872) • essay by Augustus De Morgan
• 258 • With Apologies to Boyal • (1947) • essay by George Gamow
• 258 • Paradise Lost at Cambridge • essay by Thomas Jefferson Hogg
• 259 • That Mason-Dixon Line • essay by Simon Newcomb
• 259 • Pi and the Actuary • essay by W. W. R. Ball
• 259 • Extinction by Subtraction • essay by W. W. R. Ball
• 260 • Mathematics Chez Madame Mariette • (1942) • essay by Elliot Paul
• 261 • The Devil a Mathematician Would Be • essay by A. J. Lohwater
• 262 • Verse • (1958) • poem by Frederick Winsor
• 262 • Verse • (1951) • poem by Anonymous
• 263 • Three Verses • (1958) • poem by Frederick Winsor
• 263 • Riddle • (1951) • poem by Anonymous
• 264 • Three Verses • (1959) • poem by L. A. Graham
• 265 • To a Missing Member of a Family Group of Terms in an Algebraic Formula • poem by J. J. Sylvester
• 266 • Geometry • (1805) • poem by William Wordsworth
• 266 • from "The Dunciad" • (1728) • poem by Alexander Pope
• 266 • Portrait of a Mathematician • (1950) • poem by Christopher Morley
• 269 • Me • (1959) • poem by Hilbert Schenck
• 270 •  Cartoon • (1958) • interior artwork by Leo Demare
• 271 • Song of the Screw • poem by Anonymous
• 273 • The Modern Hiawatha • poem by Anonymous
• 274 • The Loves of the Triangles • (1798) • poem by George Canning and John Hookham Frere
• 276 • The Mathematician in Love • (1874) • poem by W. J. M. Rankine
• 278 • Engineer's Yell • poem by Anonymous
• 278 • E=mc² • (1946) • poem by Morris Bishop
• 279 • Note on Theta, Phi, and Psi • (1935) • poem by Michael Roberts
• 279 • Verse • (1925) • poem by Stephen Barr
• 279 • Verse • (1925) • poem by Dr. William Whewell
• 281 • Wockyjabber • (1960) • poem by Hilbert Schenck [as by Hilbert Schenck, Jr.]
• 281 • A Song Against Circles • (1961) • poem by R. P. Lister
• 282 • Einstein: A Parody in the Manner of Edw-n Markh-m • (1926) • poem by Louis Untermeyer (variant of Einstein by Edw-n Markh-m 1922)
• 283 • The Magic Box • (1928) • poem by W. R. Baker
• 283 • The Superlative Degree • (1959) • poem by Ernest Elmo Calkins
• 283 • Tending to Infinity • (1957) • poem by J. L. Synge
• 284 • The Kiss Precise • (1936) • poem by Frederick Soddy
• 285 • The Kiss Precise (Generalized) • (1937) • poem by Thorold Gossett
• 286 • The Hexlet • (1936) • poem by Frederick Soddy
• 287 • Short Cuts to Success • (1917) • short story by Ronald A. Knox
• 289 • There Was a Young Lady Named Bright • (1912) • poem by A. H. Reginald Buller
• 290 • Snip, Snip • (1959) • poem by Hilbert Schenck [as by Hilbert Schenck, Jr.]
• 290 • There Was an Old Man Who Said, "Do..." • poem by Anonymous (variant of There Was an Old Man Who Said, "Do" 1958)
• 290 • Sequel to "There Was a Young Lady Named Bright" • poem by A. H. Reginald Buller
• 291 •  Cartoon • (1955) • interior artwork by Paul Peter Porges
• 292 • A Mathematician Confided • poem by Anonymous
• 292 • Pun in Orbit • poem by Hilbert Schenck [as by Hilbert Schenck, Jr.]
• 292 • The Young Man of Sid. Sussex • (1945) • poem by Arthur C. Hilton
• 293 • A Mathematician Named Klein • poem by Anonymous
• 294 • The Map of England and the Absolute • (1920) • short story by George Santayana
• 296 • Cupid with an Adding Machine • (1960) • short story by Charles D. Rice
• 298 • The Miniver Problem • (1959) • essay by L. A. Graham and Jan Struther