Mathematics (from Greek μάθημα (''máthēma'') — knowledge, study, learning) is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity. The research required to solve mathematical problems can take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry. However, mathematical proofs are less formal and painstaking than proofs in mathematical logic. Since the pioneering work of Giuseppe Peano, David Hilbert, and others on axiomatic systems in the late 19th century, it has become customary to view mathematical research as establishing truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions. When those mathematical structures are good models of real phenomena, then mathematical reasoning often provides insight or predictions.

Through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning, mathematics evolved from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical objects. Practical mathematics has been a human activity for as far back as written records exist. Rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in ''Euclid's Elements''. Mathematics continued to develop, for example in China in 300 BC, in India in AD 100, and in the Muslim world in AD 800, until the Renaissance, when mathematical innovations interacting with new scientific discoveries led to a rapid increase in the rate of mathematical discovery that continues to the present day.

The mathematician Benjamin Peirce called mathematics "the science that draws necessary conclusions". David Hilbert defined mathematics as follows: ''We are not speaking here of arbitrariness in any sense. Mathematics is not like a game whose tasks are determined by arbitrarily stipulated rules. Rather, it is a conceptual system possessing internal necessity that can only be so and by no means otherwise.'' Albert Einstein stated that "as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

Mathematics is used throughout the world as an essential tool in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, and the social sciences. Applied mathematics, the branch of mathematics concerned with application of mathematical knowledge to other fields, inspires and makes use of new mathematical discoveries and sometimes leads to the development of entirely new mathematical disciplines, such as statistics and game theory. Mathematicians also engage in pure mathematics, or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind, although practical applications for what began as pure mathematics are often discovered.

Etymology

The word "mathematics" comes from the Greek μάθημα (''máthēma''), which means in ancient Greek ''what one learns'', ''what one gets to know'', hence also ''study'' and ''science'', and in modern Greek just ''lesson''.

The word ''máthēma'' comes from μανθάνω (''manthano'') in ancient Greek and from μαθαίνω (''mathaino'') in modern Greek, both of which mean ''to learn''.

The word "mathematics" came to have the narrower and more technical meaning "mathematical study", even in Classical times. Its adjective is (''mathēmatikós''), meaning ''related to learning'' or ''studious'', which likewise further came to mean ''mathematical''. In particular, (''mathēmatikḗ tékhnē''), , meant ''the mathematical art''.

The apparent plural form in English, like the French plural form (and the less commonly used singular derivative ), goes back to the Latin neuter plural (Cicero), based on the Greek plural , used by Aristotle, and meaning roughly "all things mathematical"; although it is plausible that English borrowed only the adjective ''mathematic(al)'' and formed the noun ''mathematics'' anew, after the pattern of physics and metaphysics, which were inherited from the Greek. In English, the noun ''mathematics'' takes singular verb forms. It is often shortened to ''maths'' or, in English-speaking North America, ''math''.

History

The evolution of mathematics might be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions, or alternatively an expansion of subject matter. The first abstraction, which is shared by many animals, was probably that of numbers: the realization that a collection of two apples and a collection of two oranges (for example) have something in common, namely quantity of their members.

In addition to recognizing how to count ''physical'' objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count ''abstract'' quantities, like time – days, seasons, years. Elementary arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) naturally followed.

Since numeracy pre-dated writing, further steps were needed for recording numbers such as tallies or the knotted strings called quipu used by the Inca to store numerical data. Numeral systems have been many and diverse, with the first known written numerals created by Egyptians in Middle Kingdom texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.

The earliest uses of mathematics were in trading, land measurement, painting and weaving patterns and the recording of time. More complex mathematics did not appear until around 3000 BC, when the Babylonians and Egyptians began using arithmetic, algebra and geometry for taxation and other financial calculations, for building and construction, and for astronomy. The systematic study of mathematics in its own right began with the Ancient Greeks between 600 and 300 BC.

Mathematics has since been greatly extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue to be made today. According to Mikhail B. Sevryuk, in the January 2006 issue of the ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'', "The number of papers and books included in the Mathematical Reviews database since 1940 (the first year of operation of MR) is now more than 1.9 million, and more than 75 thousand items are added to the database each year. The overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new mathematical theorems and their proofs."

Inspiration, pure and applied mathematics, and aesthetics

Mathematics arises from many different kinds of problems. At first these were found in commerce, land measurement, architecture and later astronomy; nowadays, all sciences suggest problems studied by mathematicians, and many problems arise within mathematics itself. For example, the physicist Richard Feynman invented the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics using a combination of mathematical reasoning and physical insight, and today's string theory, a still-developing scientific theory which attempts to unify the four fundamental forces of nature, continues to inspire new mathematics. Some mathematics is only relevant in the area that inspired it, and is applied to solve further problems in that area. But often mathematics inspired by one area proves useful in many areas, and joins the general stock of mathematical concepts. A distinction is often made between pure mathematics and applied mathematics. However pure mathematics topics often turn out to have applications, e.g. number theory in cryptography. This remarkable fact that even the "purest" mathematics often turns out to have practical applications is what Eugene Wigner has called "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics". As in most areas of study, the explosion of knowledge in the scientific age has led to specialization: there are now hundreds of specialized areas in mathematics and the latest Mathematics Subject Classification runs to 46 pages. Several areas of applied mathematics have merged with related traditions outside of mathematics and become disciplines in their own right, including statistics, operations research, and computer science.

For those who are mathematically inclined, there is often a definite aesthetic aspect to much of mathematics. Many mathematicians talk about the ''elegance'' of mathematics, its intrinsic aesthetics and inner beauty. Simplicity and generality are valued. There is beauty in a simple and elegant proof, such as Euclid's proof that there are infinitely many prime numbers, and in an elegant numerical method that speeds calculation, such as the fast Fourier transform. G. H. Hardy in ''A Mathematician's Apology'' expressed the belief that these aesthetic considerations are, in themselves, sufficient to justify the study of pure mathematics. He identified criteria such as significance, unexpectedness, inevitability, and economy as factors that contribute to a mathematical aesthetic. Mathematicians often strive to find proofs that are particularly elegant, proofs from "The Book" of God according to Paul Erdős. The popularity of recreational mathematics is another sign of the pleasure many find in solving mathematical questions.

Notation, language, and rigor

Most of the mathematical notation in use today was not invented until the 16th century. Before that, mathematics was written out in words, a painstaking process that limited mathematical discovery. Euler (1707–1783) was responsible for many of the notations in use today. Modern notation makes mathematics much easier for the professional, but beginners often find it daunting. It is extremely compressed: a few symbols contain a great deal of information. Like musical notation, modern mathematical notation has a strict syntax (which to a limited extent varies from author to author and from discipline to discipline) and encodes information that would be difficult to write in any other way.

Mathematical language can be difficult to understand for beginners. Words such as ''or'' and ''only'' have more precise meanings than in everyday speech. Moreover, words such as ''open'' and ''field'' have been given specialized mathematical meanings. Technical terms such as ''homeomorphism'' and ''integrable'' have precise meanings in mathematics. Additionally, shorthand phrases such as "iff" for "if and only if" belong to mathematical jargon. There is a reason for special notation and technical vocabulary: mathematics requires more precision than everyday speech. Mathematicians refer to this precision of language and logic as "rigor".

Mathematical proof is fundamentally a matter of rigor. Mathematicians want their theorems to follow from axioms by means of systematic reasoning. This is to avoid mistaken "theorems", based on fallible intuitions, of which many instances have occurred in the history of the subject. The level of rigor expected in mathematics has varied over time: the Greeks expected detailed arguments, but at the time of Isaac Newton the methods employed were less rigorous. Problems inherent in the definitions used by Newton would lead to a resurgence of careful analysis and formal proof in the 19th century. Misunderstanding the rigor is a cause for some of the common misconceptions of mathematics. Today, mathematicians continue to argue among themselves about computer-assisted proofs. Since large computations are hard to verify, such proofs may not be sufficiently rigorous.

Axioms in traditional thought were "self-evident truths", but that conception is problematic. At a formal level, an axiom is just a string of symbols, which has an intrinsic meaning only in the context of all derivable formulas of an axiomatic system. It was the goal of Hilbert's program to put all of mathematics on a firm axiomatic basis, but according to Gödel's incompleteness theorem every (sufficiently powerful) axiomatic system has undecidable formulas; and so a final axiomatization of mathematics is impossible. Nonetheless mathematics is often imagined to be (as far as its formal content) nothing but set theory in some axiomatization, in the sense that every mathematical statement or proof could be cast into formulas within set theory.

Fields of mathematics

Mathematics can, broadly speaking, be subdivided into the study of quantity, structure, space, and change (i.e. arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and analysis). In addition to these main concerns, there are also subdivisions dedicated to exploring links from the heart of mathematics to other fields: to logic, to set theory (foundations), to the empirical mathematics of the various sciences (applied mathematics), and more recently to the rigorous study of uncertainty.

Foundations and philosophy

In order to clarify the foundations of mathematics, the fields of mathematical logic and set theory were developed. Mathematical logic includes the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics; set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies sets or collections of objects. Category theory, which deals in an abstract way with mathematical structures and relationships between them, is still in development. The phrase "crisis of foundations" describes the search for a rigorous foundation for mathematics that took place from approximately 1900 to 1930. Some disagreement about the foundations of mathematics continues to the present day. The crisis of foundations was stimulated by a number of controversies at the time, including the controversy over Cantor's set theory and the Brouwer-Hilbert controversy.

Mathematical logic is concerned with setting mathematics within a rigorous axiomatic framework, and studying the implications of such a framework. As such, it is home to Gödel's incompleteness theorems which (informally) imply that any formal system that contains basic arithmetic, if ''sound'' (meaning that all theorems that can be proven are true), is necessarily ''incomplete'' (meaning that there are true theorems which cannot be proved ''in that system''). Whatever finite collection of number-theoretical axioms is taken as a foundation, Gödel showed how to construct a formal statement that is a true number-theoretical fact, but which does not follow from those axioms. Therefore no formal system is a complete axiomatization of full number theory. Modern logic is divided into recursion theory, model theory, and proof theory, and is closely linked to theoretical computer science.

Theoretical computer science includes computability theory, computational complexity theory, and information theory. Computability theory examines the limitations of various theoretical models of the computer, including the most well known model – the Turing machine. Complexity theory is the study of tractability by computer; some problems, although theoretically solvable by computer, are so expensive in terms of time or space that solving them is likely to remain practically unfeasible, even with rapid advance of computer hardware. A famous problem is the "P=NP?" problem, one of the Millennium Prize Problems. Finally, information theory is concerned with the amount of data that can be stored on a given medium, and hence deals with concepts such as compression and entropy.

:{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin:auto" cellspacing="15" | $p\; \backslash Rightarrow\; q\; \backslash ,$|| |- | Mathematical logic || Set theory || Category theory || Theory of computation |}

Pure mathematics

====Quantity==== The study of quantity starts with numbers, first the familiar natural numbers and integers ("whole numbers") and arithmetical operations on them, which are characterized in arithmetic. The deeper properties of integers are studied in number theory, from which come such popular results as Fermat's Last Theorem. The twin prime conjecture and Goldbach's conjecture are two unsolved problems in number theory.

As the number system is further developed, the integers are recognized as a subset of the rational numbers ("fractions"). These, in turn, are contained within the real numbers, which are used to represent continuous quantities. Real numbers are generalized to complex numbers. These are the first steps of a hierarchy of numbers that goes on to include quarternions and octonions. Consideration of the natural numbers also leads to the transfinite numbers, which formalize the concept of "infinity". Another area of study is size, which leads to the cardinal numbers and then to another conception of infinity: the aleph numbers, which allow meaningful comparison of the size of infinitely large sets.

:{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin:auto" cellspacing="20" | $1,\; 2,\; 3\backslash ,...\backslash !$ || $...-2,\; -1,\; 0,\; 1,\; 2\backslash ,...\backslash !$ || $-2,\; \backslash frac\{2\}\{3\},\; 1.21\backslash ,\backslash !$ || $-e,\; \backslash sqrt\{2\},\; 3,\; \backslash pi\backslash ,\backslash !$ || $2,\; i,\; -2+3i,\; 2e^\{i\backslash frac\{4\backslash pi\}\{3\}\}\backslash ,\backslash !$ |- | Natural numbers|| Integers || Rational numbers || Real numbers || Complex numbers |}

====Structure==== Many mathematical objects, such as sets of numbers and functions, exhibit internal structure as a consequence of operations or relations that are defined on the set. Mathematics then studies properties of those sets that can be expressed in terms of that structure; for instance number theory studies properties of the set of integers that can be expressed in terms of arithmetic operations. Moreover, it frequently happens that different such structured sets (or structures) exhibit similar properties, which makes it possible, by a further step of abstraction, to state axioms for a class of structures, and then study at once the whole class of structures satisfying these axioms. Thus one can study groups, rings, fields and other abstract systems; together such studies (for structures defined by algebraic operations) constitute the domain of abstract algebra. By its great generality, abstract algebra can often be applied to seemingly unrelated problems; for instance a number of ancient problems concerning compass and straightedge constructions were finally solved using Galois theory, which involves field theory and group theory. Another example of an algebraic theory is linear algebra, which is the general study of vector spaces, whose elements called vectors have both quantity and direction, and can be used to model (relations between) points in space. This is one example of the phenomenon that the originally unrelated areas of geometry and algebra have very strong interactions in modern mathematics. Combinatorics studies ways of enumerating the number of objects that fit a given structure.

:{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin:auto" cellspacing="15" | || |- | Combinatorics || Number theory || Group theory || Graph theory || Order theory |}

====Space==== The study of space originates with geometry – in particular, Euclidean geometry. Trigonometry is the branch of mathematics that deals with relationships between the sides and the angles of triangles and with the trigonometric functions; it combines space and numbers, and encompasses the well-known Pythagorean theorem. The modern study of space generalizes these ideas to include higher-dimensional geometry, non-Euclidean geometries (which play a central role in general relativity) and topology. Quantity and space both play a role in analytic geometry, differential geometry, and algebraic geometry. Convex and discrete geometry was developed to solve problems in number theory and functional analysis but now is pursued with an eye on applications in optimization and computer science. Within differential geometry are the concepts of fiber bundles and calculus on manifolds, in particular, vector and tensor calculus. Within algebraic geometry is the description of geometric objects as solution sets of polynomial equations, combining the concepts of quantity and space, and also the study of topological groups, which combine structure and space. Lie groups are used to study space, structure, and change. Topology in all its many ramifications may have been the greatest growth area in 20th century mathematics; it includes point-set topology, set-theoretic topology, algebraic topology and differential topology. In particular, instances of modern day topology are metrizability theory, axiomatic set theory, homotopy theory, and Morse theory. Topology also includes the now solved Poincaré conjecture. Other results in geometry and topology, including the four color theorem and Kepler conjecture, have been proved only with the help of computers.

:{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin:auto" cellspacing="15" | |- |Geometry || Trigonometry || Differential geometry || Topology || Fractal geometry || Measure theory |}

====Change==== Understanding and describing change is a common theme in the natural sciences, and calculus was developed as a powerful tool to investigate it. Functions arise here, as a central concept describing a changing quantity. The rigorous study of real numbers and functions of a real variable is known as real analysis, with complex analysis the equivalent field for the complex numbers. Functional analysis focuses attention on (typically infinite-dimensional) spaces of functions. One of many applications of functional analysis is quantum mechanics. Many problems lead naturally to relationships between a quantity and its rate of change, and these are studied as differential equations. Many phenomena in nature can be described by dynamical systems; chaos theory makes precise the ways in which many of these systems exhibit unpredictable yet still deterministic behavior.

{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin:auto" cellspacing="20" | |- | Calculus || Vector calculus|| Differential equations || Dynamical systems || Chaos theory || Complex analysis |}

Applied mathematics

Applied mathematics concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge. The term "applied mathematics" also describes the professional specialty in which mathematicians work on practical problems; as a profession focused on practical problems, ''applied mathematics'' focuses on the ''formulation, study, and use of mathematical models'' in science, engineering, and other areas of mathematical practice.

In the past, practical applications have motivated the development of mathematical theories, which then became the subject of study in pure mathematics, where mathematics is developed primarily for its own sake. Thus, the activity of applied mathematics is vitally connected with research in pure mathematics.

Statistics and other decision sciences

Applied mathematics has significant overlap with the discipline of statistics, whose theory is formulated mathematically, especially with probability theory. Statisticians (working as part of a research project) "create data that makes sense" with random sampling and with randomized experiments; the design of a statistical sample or experiment specifies the analysis of the data (before the data be available). When reconsidering data from experiments and samples or when analyzing data from observational studies, statisticians "make sense of the data" using the art of modelling and the theory of inference – with model selection and estimation; the estimated models and consequential predictions should be tested on new data.

Statistical theory studies decision problems such as minimizing the risk (expected loss) of a statistical action, such as using a procedure in, for example, parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, and selecting the best. In these traditional areas of mathematical statistics, a statistical-decision problem is formulated by minimizing an objective function, like expected loss or cost, under specific constraints: For example, a designing a survey often involves minimizing the cost of estimating a population mean with a given level of confidence. Because of its use of optimization, the mathematical theory of statistics shares concerns with other decision sciences, such as operations research, control theory, and mathematical economics.

Computational mathematics

Computational mathematics proposes and studies methods for solving mathematical problems that are typically too large for human numerical capacity. Numerical analysis studies methods for problems in analysis using functional analysis and approximation theory; numerical analysis includes the study of approximation and discretization broadly with special concern for rounding errors. Numerical analysis and, more broadly, scientific computing also study non-analytic topics of mathematical science, especially algorithmic matrix and graph theory. Other areas of computational mathematics include computer algebra and symbolic computation.

{| style="border:1px solid #ddd; text-align:center; margin:0 auto" cellspacing="20" |- | |- | Mathematical physics || Fluid dynamics || Numerical analysis || Optimization || Probability theory || Statistics || Cryptography |- | |- | Mathematical finance || Game theory || Mathematical biology || Mathematical chemistry|| Mathematical economics || Control theory |}

Mathematics as profession

The best-known award in mathematics is the , established in 1936 and now awarded every 4 years. It is often considered the equivalent of science's Nobel Prizes. The Wolf Prize in Mathematics, instituted in 1978, recognizes lifetime achievement, and another major international award, the Abel Prize, was introduced in 2003. The Chern Medal was introduced in 2010 to recognize lifetime achievement. These are awarded for a particular body of work, which may be innovation, or resolution of an outstanding problem in an established field.

A famous list of 23 open problems, called "Hilbert's problems", was compiled in 1900 by German mathematician David Hilbert. This list achieved great celebrity among mathematicians, and at least nine of the problems have now been solved. A new list of seven important problems, titled the "Millennium Prize Problems", was published in 2000. Solution of each of these problems carries a $1 million reward, and only one (the Riemann hypothesis) is duplicated in Hilbert's problems.

Mathematics as science

upright|thumb|left|Carl Friedrich Gauss, himself known as the "prince of mathematicians", referred to mathematics as "the Queen of the Sciences".

Carl Friedrich Gauss referred to mathematics as "the Queen of the Sciences". In the original Latin ''Regina Scientiarum'', as well as in German ''Königin der Wissenschaften'', the word corresponding to ''science'' means a "field of knowledge", and this was the original meaning of "science" in English, also. Of course, mathematics is in this sense a field of knowledge. The specialization restricting the meaning of "science" to ''natural science'' follows the rise of Baconian science, which contrasted "natural science" to scholasticism, the Aristotelean method of inquiring from first principles. Of course, the role of empirical experimentation and observation is negligible in mathematics, compared to natural sciences such as psychology, biology, or physics. Albert Einstein stated that ''"as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.''"

Many philosophers believe that mathematics is not experimentally falsifiable, and thus not a science according to the definition of Karl Popper. However, in the 1930s Gödel's incompleteness theorems convinced many mathematicians that mathematics cannot be reduced to logic alone, and Karl Popper concluded that "most mathematical theories are, like those of physics and biology, hypothetico-deductive: pure mathematics therefore turns out to be much closer to the natural sciences whose hypotheses are conjectures, than it seemed even recently." Other thinkers, notably Imre Lakatos, have applied a version of falsificationism to mathematics itself.

An alternative view is that certain scientific fields (such as theoretical physics) are mathematics with axioms that are intended to correspond to reality. In fact, the theoretical physicist, J. M. Ziman, proposed that science is ''public knowledge'' and thus includes mathematics. In any case, mathematics shares much in common with many fields in the physical sciences, notably the exploration of the logical consequences of assumptions. Intuition and experimentation also play a role in the formulation of conjectures in both mathematics and the (other) sciences. Experimental mathematics continues to grow in importance within mathematics, and computation and simulation are playing an increasing role in both the sciences and mathematics, weakening the objection that mathematics does not use the scientific method.

The opinions of mathematicians on this matter are varied. Many mathematicians feel that to call their area a science is to downplay the importance of its aesthetic side, and its history in the traditional seven liberal arts; others feel that to ignore its connection to the sciences is to turn a blind eye to the fact that the interface between mathematics and its applications in science and engineering has driven much development in mathematics. One way this difference of viewpoint plays out is in the philosophical debate as to whether mathematics is ''created'' (as in art) or ''discovered'' (as in science). It is common to see universities divided into sections that include a division of ''Science and Mathematics'', indicating that the fields are seen as being allied but that they do not coincide. In practice, mathematicians are typically grouped with scientists at the gross level but separated at finer levels. This is one of many issues considered in the philosophy of mathematics.

See also

Definitions of mathematics

Dyscalculia

Iatromathematicians

List of mathematics competitions

Mathematical anxiety

Mathematical game

Mathematical model

Mathematics and art

Mathematics education

Pseudomathematics

Notes

References

Courant, Richard and H. Robbins, ''What Is Mathematics? : An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods'', Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (July 18, 1996). ISBN 0-19-510519-2.

Eves, Howard, ''An Introduction to the History of Mathematics'', Sixth Edition, Saunders, 1990, ISBN 0-03-029558-0.

Kline, Morris, ''Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times'', Oxford University Press, USA; Paperback edition (March 1, 1990). ISBN 0-19-506135-7.

Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, ed. John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Clarendon Press, 1989, ISBN 0-19-861186-2.

''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'', 1983 reprint. ISBN 0-19-861112-9.

Pappas, Theoni, ''The Joy Of Mathematics'', Wide World Publishing; Revised edition (June 1989). ISBN 0-933174-65-9.

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Peterson, Ivars, ''Mathematical Tourist, New and Updated Snapshots of Modern Mathematics'', Owl Books, 2001, ISBN 0-8050-7159-8.

Further reading

Benson, Donald C., ''The Moment of Proof: Mathematical Epiphanies'', Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition (December 14, 2000). ISBN 0-19-513919-4.

Boyer, Carl B., ''A History of Mathematics'', Wiley; 2 edition (March 6, 1991). ISBN 0-471-54397-7. — A concise history of mathematics from the Concept of Number to contemporary Mathematics.

Davis, Philip J. and Hersh, Reuben, ''The Mathematical Experience''. Mariner Books; Reprint edition (January 14, 1999). ISBN 0-395-92968-7.

Gullberg, Jan, ''Mathematics — From the Birth of Numbers''. W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (October 1997). ISBN 0-393-04002-X.

Hazewinkel, Michiel (ed.), ''Encyclopaedia of Mathematics''. Kluwer Academic Publishers 2000. — A translated and expanded version of a Soviet mathematics encyclopedia, in ten (expensive) volumes, the most complete and authoritative work available. Also in paperback and on CD-ROM, and online.

Jourdain, Philip E. B., ''The Nature of Mathematics'', in ''The World of Mathematics'', James R. Newman, editor, Dover Publications, 2003, ISBN 0-486-43268-8.

External links

Free Mathematics books Free Mathematics books collection.

Encyclopaedia of Mathematics online encyclopaedia from Springer, Graduate-level reference work with over 8,000 entries, illuminating nearly 50,000 notions in mathematics.

HyperMath site at Georgia State University

FreeScience Library The mathematics section of FreeScience library

Rusin, Dave: ''The Mathematical Atlas''. A guided tour through the various branches of modern mathematics. (Can also be found at NIU.edu.)

Polyanin, Andrei: ''EqWorld: The World of Mathematical Equations''. An online resource focusing on algebraic, ordinary differential, partial differential (mathematical physics), integral, and other mathematical equations.

Cain, George: Online Mathematics Textbooks available free online.

Tricki, Wiki-style site that is intended to develop into a large store of useful mathematical problem-solving techniques.

Mathematical Structures, list information about classes of mathematical structures.

Mathematician Biographies. The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive Extensive history and quotes from all famous mathematicians.

''Metamath''. A site and a language, that formalize mathematics from its foundations.

Nrich, a prize-winning site for students from age five from Cambridge University

Open Problem Garden, a wiki of open problems in mathematics

''Planet Math''. An online mathematics encyclopedia under construction, focusing on modern mathematics. Uses the Attribution-ShareAlike license, allowing article exchange with Wikipedia. Uses TeX markup.

Some mathematics applets, at MIT

Weisstein, Eric et al.: ''MathWorld: World of Mathematics''. An online encyclopedia of mathematics.

Patrick Jones' Video Tutorials on Mathematics

Citizendium: Theory (mathematics).

Category:Mathematical sciences Category:Formal sciences Category:Greek loanwords

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Coordinates	51°41′″N17°4′″N
name	Tom Lehrer
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Andrew Lehrer
born	April 09, 1928New York, New York
instrument	VocalsPiano
occupation	Mathematician, teacher, lyricist, pianist, composer, singer/songwriter
years active	1945–1971, 1998
label	Reprise/Warner Bros. RecordsRhino/Atlantic RecordsShout! Factory
associated acts	Joe Raposo }}

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer (born April 9, 1928) is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. Lehrer is best known for the pithy, humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s.

His work often parodies popular song forms, such as in "The Elements", where he sets the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Pirates of Penzance''. Lehrer's earlier work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor, seen in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs dealing with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show ''That Was The Week That Was''.

In the early 1970s, he retired from public performances to devote his time to teaching mathematics and music theatre at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He did two additional performances in 1998 at a London gala show celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh.

Early life

Lehrer was born in 1928 to a Jewish family in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and began studying classical piano music at the age of seven. He was more interested in the popular music of the age, however. Eventually, his mother also sent him to a popular-music piano teacher. At this early age, he began writing his own show tunes, which eventually helped him in his future adventures as a satirical composer and writer in his years of lecturing at Harvard University, and later at other universities.

Lehrer graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He attended Camp Androscoggin, both as a camper and a counselor. While studying mathematics as an undergraduate student at Harvard College, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" (1945). Those songs were later named ''The Physical Revue'', a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, ''The Physical Review''.

Mathematics career

Lehrer earned his AB in mathematics (''magna cum laude'') from Harvard University in 1947, when he was nineteen. He received his MA degree the next year and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He taught classes at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley.

He remained in Harvard's doctoral program for several years, taking time out for his musical career and to work as a researcher at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He served in the Army from 1955 to 1957, working at the National Security Agency. (Lehrer has stated that he invented the Jell-O Shot during this time, as a means of circumventing liquor restrictions.) All of these experiences eventually became fodder for songs, viz. "Fight Fiercely, Harvard", "The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be" and "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier". Despite holding a master's degree in an era when American conscripts often lacked a high school diploma, Lehrer served as an enlisted soldier, achieving the rank of Specialist Four, which he described as being a "corporal without portfolio". In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time studies at Harvard, but he never completed his doctoral studies in mathematics.

From 1962, he taught in the political science department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1972, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching an introductory course entitled "The Nature of Mathematics" to liberal arts majors—"Math for Tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He occasionally performed songs in his lectures, primarily those relating to the topic.

In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class (on the topic of infinity, and which was said to go on forever) and retired from academia. He has remained in the area, and still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz.

His Erdős number is 4.

Mathematical publications

The American Mathematical Society database lists Lehrer as co-author of two papers:

RE Fagen & TA Lehrer, "Random walks with restraining barrier as applied to the biased binary counter", ''Journal of the Society for Industrial Applied Mathematics'', vol. 6, pp. 1–14 (March 1958) T Austin, R Fagen, T Lehrer, W Penney, "The distribution of the number of locally maximal elements in a random sample", ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics'' vol. 28, pp. 786–790 (1957)

Musical career

Lehrer was mainly influenced by musical theater. According to Gerald Nachtman's book Seriously Funny, the broadway musical, "Let's Face It" (lyrics by Sylvia Fine; music by Cole Porter) made an early and lasting impression. Lehrer's style consists of parodying various forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to set an unordered list of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song".

Author Isaac Asimov recounted in his second autobiographical volume ''In Joy Still Felt'' of seeing Lehrer perform in a Boston nightclub on October 9, 1954, during which Lehrer sang very cleverly about Jim getting it from Louise, and Sally from Jim, "and after a while you gathered the 'it' to be venereal disease [the song was likely "I Got It From Sally (in later versions 'Agnes')"]. Suddenly, as the combinations grew more grotesque, you realized he was satirizing every perversion known to mankind without using a single naughty phrase. It was clearly unsingable (in those days) outside a nightclub." Asimov also recalled a song that dealt with the Boston subway system, making use of the stations leading into town from Harvard, observing that the local subject-matter rendered the song useless for general distribution. Lehrer subsequently granted Asimov permission to print the lyrics to the subway song in his book. "I haven't gone to nightclubs often," said Asimov, "but of all the times I have gone, it was on this occasion that I had by far the best time."

Lehrer was inspired by the success of his performances of his own songs, so he paid for some studio time to record ''Songs by Tom Lehrer''. At the time, radio stations would not give Lehrer air time because of his controversial subjects. Instead, he sold his album on campus at Harvard for three dollars, while "supportive record merchants and dorm newsstands bought copies…and marked them up fifty cents." After one summer, he also started to receive mail orders from all parts of the country (as far away as San Francisco, after ''The Chronicle'' wrote an article on the record). Interest in his recordings was spread by word of mouth; friends and supporters brought their records home and played them for their friends, who then also wanted a copy.

The album—which included the macabre "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", the mildly risqué "Be Prepared", and "Lobachevsky" (regarding plagiarizing mathematicians) became a cult success via word of mouth, despite being self-published and without promotion. Lehrer then embarked on a series of concert tours and recorded a second album, which was released in two versions: the songs were the same, but ''More of Tom Lehrer'' was studio-recorded, while ''An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer'' was recorded live in concert.

Lehrer's major breakthrough in the United Kingdom came as a result of the citation accompanying an honorary degree given to Princess Margaret, where she cited musical tastes as "catholic, ranging from Mozart to Tom Lehrer". This prompted significant interest in his works and helped secure distributors for his material in the UK. It was there that his music achieved real popularity, as a result of the proliferation of university newspapers referring to the material, and the willingness of the BBC to play his songs on the radio (something that was a rarity in the United States).

By the early 1960s, Lehrer had retired from touring and was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of ''That Was The Week That Was'' (TW3), a satirical television show. An increased proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as education ("New Math"), the Second Vatican Council ("The Vatican Rag"), race relations ("National Brotherhood Week"), air and water pollution ("Pollution"), American militarism ("Send the Marines"), World War III "pre-nostalgia" ("So Long, Mom", premiered by Steve Allen), and nuclear proliferation ("Who's Next?" and "MLF Lullaby"). He also wrote a song that famously satirized the alleged amorality of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who had previously worked for Nazi Germany before working for the United States. ("'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun.") Lehrer did not appear on the television show; his songs were performed by a female vocalist and his lyrics were often altered by the network censors. Lehrer later performed the songs on the album, ''That Was The Year That Was'', so that, in his words, people could hear the songs the way they were intended to be heard.

In 1967, Lehrer was persuaded to make a short tour in Norway and Denmark, where he performed some of the songs from the television program. The performance in Oslo, Norway, on September 10 was recorded on video tape and aired locally later that autumn; this program was released on DVD some 40 years later.

Also around 1967, Lehrer composed and performed on piano original songs in a Dodge automobile "industrial" film that was distributed primarily to Dodge automobile dealers. It was also shown at promotional events organized by Dodge. Set in a fictional American wild west town, the full proper title of the film appears to be "The Dodge Rebellion Theatre presents Ballads For '67" Since the film is introducing 1967 model automobiles, it was possibly produced in late 1966.

The record deal with Reprise Records for the ''That Was The Year That Was'' album also gave Reprise distribution rights for Lehrer's earlier recordings, as Lehrer wanted to wind up his own record imprint. The Reprise issue of ''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, but the songs were issued on the live ''Tom Lehrer Revisited'' CD instead. The [live] recording also included bonus tracks "L-Y" and "Silent E", which Lehrer wrote for the PBS children's educational series ''The Electric Company''. Lehrer later commented that worldwide sales of the recordings under Reprise surpassed 1.8 million units in 1996. That same year, the album ''That Was The Year That Was'' went gold. The album liner notes (and Lehrer himself in one routine) promote Tom Lehrer's songs using reverse psychology, by deliberately quoting his negative reviews.

Departure from the music scene

There is an urban legend that Lehrer gave up political satire when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger in 1973. He did comment that awarding the prize to Kissinger made political satire obsolete, but has denied that he stopped creating satire thereafter as a form of protest, asserting that he had stopped several years prior to the award. Another mistaken belief is that he was sued for libel by the estate of Wernher Von Braun, the subject of one of his songs, and forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. Lehrer firmly denied this in a 2003 interview.

When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career, in an interview in the book accompanying his CD box set (released in 2000), he cited a simple lack of interest, a distaste for touring, and boredom with performing the same songs repeatedly. He observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did, and when he was not, he did not, and that after a while he simply lost interest. Although many of Lehrer's songs satirized the Cold War political establishment of the era, he stopped writing and performing just as the 1960s counterculture movement gained momentum.

Lehrer's musical career was brief; in an interview in the late 1990s, he pointed out that he had performed a mere 109 shows and written 37 songs over 20 years. Nevertheless, he developed a significant cult following both in the United States and abroad.

In the 1970s, Lehrer concentrated on teaching mathematics and musical theater, although he also wrote ten songs for the children's television show ''The Electric Company''—Lehrer's Harvard schoolmate Joe Raposo was the show's musical director for its first three seasons.

Revivals and discographic reissues

In the early 1980s, ''Tom Foolery'', a revival of his songs on the London stage, was a hit. Although not its instigator, Lehrer eventually gave the stage production his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the production (such as "Who's Next", in which Neiman-Marcus [or in the San Francisco production, J.C. Penney], not Alabama, gets the bomb). ''Tom Foolery'' contained 27 Lehrer songs and led to more than 200 productions, including an off-Broadway production at the Village Gate, which ran for 120 performances in 1981.

In conjunction with the ''Tom Foolery'' premiere in 1980 at Criterion Theatre in London, Lehrer made a rare TV appearance on BBCs ''Parkinson'' show, where he sang "I Got It From Agnes".

On June 7 and 8, 1998, Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London as part of the gala show ''Hey, Mr. Producer!'' celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh, who had been the producer of ''Tom Foolery''. The June 8 show was his only performance before Queen Elizabeth II. Lehrer sang "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and an updated version of the nuclear proliferation song "Who's Next?". The DVD of the event includes the former song.

In 2000, a boxed set of CDs, ''The Remains of Tom Lehrer'', was released by Rhino Entertainment. It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, ''That Was The Year That Was'', the songs he wrote for ''The Electric Company'', and some previously unreleased material. It was accompanied by a small hardbound book containing an introduction by Dr. Demento and lyrics to all the songs.

In 2010, Shout! Factory launched a reissue campaign, making his long out-of-press albums available digitally. They also issued a CD/DVD combo called ''The Tom Lehrer Collection'', which includes his best-loved songs, plus a DVD featuring an Oslo concert.

Musical legacy

Lehrer has commented that he doubts his songs had any real effect on those not already critical of the establishment: "I don't think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It's not even preaching to the converted; it's titillating the converted... I'm fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin kabaretts of the 1930s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War."

In 2003 he commented that his particular brand of political satire is more difficult in the modern world: "The real issues I don't think most people touch. The Clinton jokes are all about Monica Lewinsky and all that stuff and not about the important things, like the fact that he wouldn't ban land mines... I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them."

In a phone call to Gene Weingarten of the ''Washington Post'' in February 2008, Lehrer instructed Weingarten to "Just tell the people that I am voting for Obama."

A play, ''Letters from Lehrer'', written by Canadian Richard Greenblatt, was performed by him at CanStage, from January 16 to February 25, 2006. It followed Lehrer's musical career, the meaning of several songs, the politics of the time, and Greenblatt's own experiences with Lehrer's music, while playing some of Lehrer's songs. There are currently no plans for more performances, although low-quality audio recordings have begun to circulate around the internet.

Some of his songs ("I Hold Your Hand in Mine" and "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park") were reworked into German by the Austrian-Jewish singer satirist Georg Kreisler who lived in the United States from 1938 until 1955. Lehrer was praised by Dr. Demento as "the best musical satirist of the twentieth century". Other artists who cite Lehrer as an influence include "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose work generally addresses more popular and less technical or political subjects, and educator and scientist H. Paul Shuch, who tours under the stage name Dr. SETI and calls himself "a cross between Carl Sagan and Tom Lehrer: he sings like Sagan and lectures like Lehrer." More stylistically influenced performers include American political satirist Mark Russell, and the British duo Kit and The Widow. British medical satirists Amateur Transplants acknowledge the debt they owe to Tom Lehrer on the back of their first album, ''Fitness to Practice''. Their songs "The Menstrual Rag" and "The Drugs Song" are to the tunes of Lehrer's "The Vatican Rag" and "The Elements" (itself set to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from ''The Pirates of Penzance'' by Gilbert and Sullivan), respectively. Their second album, ''Unfit to Practise'', opens with an update of Lehrer's "The Masochism Tango" and is called simply "Masochism Tango 2008". Syndicated conservative morning-radio talk show host Jim Quinn sings with piano backing in a Lehrer-like tribute in a song on how political correctness has destroyed so many Christmas traditions with the song "A Politically Correct Christmas".

Lehrer has said of his musical career, "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."

Music lists

Reviews selected by Lehrer for his liner notes

"Mr. Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste." — ''The New York Times'' (9 February 1959)

"More desperate than amusing" — ''New York Herald Tribune''

"He seldom has any point to make except obvious ones" — ''The Christian Science Monitor''

"Plays the piano acceptably" — ''The Oakland Tribune''

Solo discography

''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' (1953)

''More of Tom Lehrer'' (1959)

''An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer'' (1959)

''Revisited'' (1960) (1990 CD reissue includes 1971 studio recordings of ''Silent E'' and ''L-Y'')

''Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice Versa)'' (1960; Australia-only)

''That Was the Year That Was'' (1965)

''Tom Lehrer in Concert'' (1994; UK compilation)

''Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer'' (1997)

''The Remains of Tom Lehrer'' (2000)

''The Tom Lehrer Collection'' (2010)

Many Lehrer songs also are performed (but not by Lehrer) in ''That Was The Week That Was'' (Radiola LP, 1981)

The sheet music to many of Lehrer's songs is published in ''The Tom Lehrer Song Book'' (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1954) Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 54-12068 and ''Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer: with not enough drawings by Ronald Searle'' (Pantheon, 1981, ISBN 0-394-74930-8).

References

External links

That Was the Wit That Was Tom Lehrer interview in SF Weekly, published 2000-04-19, retrieved 2010-08-26

Tom Lehrer Annotated Song Lyrics, many with MIDI files, collected by Graeme Cree, retrieved 2011-04-13

59 minute long mp3 radio programme from 1983, with a telephone interview with Tom Lehrer, as well as a 10 minute follow-up 1989 From "Bob Claster's Funny Stuff" on KCRW, retrieved 2010-08-26

A Conversation with Tom Lehrer done by Paul D. Lehrman on September 7, 1997, retrieved 2010-08-26

Tom Lehrer page on The Demented Music Database - includes biography, discography, lyrics and other miscellanea, retrieved on 2011-01-23

Category:1928 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century mathematicians Category:American male singers Category:American mathematicians Category:American novelty song performers Category:American satirists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American pianists Category:American comedy musicians Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Comedy musicians Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:Parody musicians Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Category:Horace Mann School alumni Category:United States Army soldiers Category:Jewish songwriters Category:Wellesley College faculty Category:Jewish comedians Category:American Jews Category:American Jews

ar:توم لهرر da:Tom Lehrer de:Tom Lehrer es:Tom Lehrer fr:Tom Lehrer he:טום לרר ht:Tom Lehrer nl:Tom Lehrer ja:トム・レーラー no:Tom Lehrer pt:Tom Lehrer ru:Лерер, Том sv:Tom Lehrer uk:Том Лерер

Coordinates	51°41′″N17°4′″N
name	Jack Black
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Jacob Black
alias	Jables, JB
birth date	August 28, 1969
birth place	Santa Monica, California, US
instrument	Vocals, guitar, percussion, keyboard
genre	Rock, comedy rock, hard rock, heavy metal, acoustic rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter, actor, comedian
years active	1991–present
label	Epic, Sony BMG
associated acts	Tenacious D, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Probot, Foo Fighters, Meat Loaf
website	www.tenaciousd.com
notable instruments	}}

Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American comedian, actor and musician. He makes up one half of the comedy and satirical rock duo Tenacious D. The group has two albums as well as a television series and a film. His acting career is extensive, starring primarily as bumbling, cocky, but internally self-conscious outsiders in comedy films. He was a member of the Frat Pack, a group of comedians who have appeared together in several Hollywood films, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. He has also won an MTV Movie Award, and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award. He also hosted the 2011 Kids Choice Awards.

Early life

Black was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of two satellite engineers, Judith (née Cohen), who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, and Thomas William Black. Black's mother is Jewish and his father converted to Judaism. On ''The Tonight Show'', he said his surname may have come from the occupational name Blacksmith. Black's parents divorced when he was 10; Black moved to Culver City with his father and frequently visited his mother’s home. As a child, Black appeared in a commercial for the Activision game ''Pitfall!'' in 1982, which was later shown during an appearance on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' and again on ''The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien''. When Black entered high school, his parents enrolled him at the Poseidon School, a private secondary school engineered specifically for students struggling in the traditional school system. Black also attended the Crossroads School, where he excelled in drama. He later attended UCLA but dropped out during his sophomore year to pursue a career in entertainment, at which point his father discontinued his financial support. Fellow UCLA alumnus Tim Robbins later cast Black in ''Bob Roberts''. He also had recurring roles on the HBO sketch comedy series ''Mr. Show''.

Career

Acting career

Black's acting career began with prime time television. He played roles on shows including ''Life Goes On'', ''Northern Exposure'', ''Mr. Show'', ''Picket Fences'', and ''The X-Files''. Black appeared in the unaired TV pilot ''Heat Vision and Jack'', directed by Ben Stiller, in which he played an ex-astronaut pursued by actor Ron Silver. He was accompanied by his friend who had merged with a motorcycle, voiced by Owen Wilson.

Black later took on small roles in ''Airborne'', ''Demolition Man'', ''Waterworld'', ''The Fan'', ''Mars Attacks!'', Tim Robbins' ''Dead Man Walking'', and others. He had a small role in ''True Romance'' as a security guard, but the scene was deleted. In 2000, he appeared in ''High Fidelity'' as a wild employee in John Cusack's record store, a role Black considers his breakout.

His career soon led to leading roles in films such as ''Shallow Hal'', ''The School of Rock'', ''Nacho Libre'', ''Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny'', ''King Kong'', ''Year One'' and ''Gulliver's Travels''. His next film, ''The Big Year'', a competitive birdwatching comedy co-starring Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and JoBeth Williams is set for release in October 2011. He is referred to in the media as a member of the Frat Pack, a group of comedy actors who frequently work together, which also includes Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Steve Carell.

He guest-starred on ''The Office'' along with Cloris Leachman, Jessica Alba, and Steve Carell in a movie within the show. He also guest-starred in iCarly, in the episode ''iStart a Fan War''.

Black has appeared numerous times on the "untelevised TV network" short film festival Channel101, starring in the shows ''Computerman'', ''Timebelt'', and ''Laserfart''. He also provided an introduction for the unaired sketch comedy ''Awesometown'', donning a Colonial-era military uniform. In the introduction, he claims to be George Washington (and takes credit for the accomplishments of other American Presidents such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln). Black also guest starred in the Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" show ''Tom Goes to the Mayor'', as a bear-trap store owner.

Black hosted the 2006 ''Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards'' on April 1, 2006 and hosted it again March 29, 2008, and April 2, 2011. He also appeared on the MTV video music awards on August 31, 2006. Black has made five appearances on ''Saturday Night Live'': three times as a host, once as a musical guest (with Kyle Gass as Tenacious D), and another appearance with Tenacious D, not as a host or musical guest. He produced and appeared on VH1's Internet video show ''Acceptable.TV''.

Black voice acted for ''The Simpsons'' episode "Husbands and Knives", which aired November 18, 2007, voicing the friendly owner of the rival comic book store, Milo. Black took part in the ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'' celebrity edition along with Denis Leary, Jimmy Kimmel and others and was handed the prize of US$125,000 in October 2001. On December 14, Jack Black hosted the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards. He provided the voice of the main character, roadie Eddie Riggs, in the heavy metal-themed action-adventure video game, ''Brütal Legend''. In 2009, at the Spike Video Game Awards, he earned the Best Voice award for the voice of Eddie Riggs in ''Brütal Legend''. In April 2009, Black also starred in an episode of the children's show "Yo Gabba Gabba!" on Nick Jr. vocalized funny kid songs such as "It's Not Fun to Get Lost", "Friends" and "Goodbye Song".

Music career

Black, also known as JB or Jables, is the lead singer for the rock comedy band Tenacious D. Along with Kyle Gass, they have released two albums, a self-titled debut, and the follow-up, ''The Pick of Destiny'', from which one of their songs "The Metal" was used in the music video games "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" and "Brütal Legend". "Rock Your Socks" from the album "Tenacious D" was played in the music videogame "Rock Band Unplugged", and "Master Exploder" from "The Pick Of Destiny" went on to be used in music video games "Guitar Hero Van Halen" and "''Rock Band 2''", along with their song "Tribute" from "Tenacious D". "Master Exploder" and "The Metal" featured in the film ''Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny''. The film, directed by Tenacious D veteran Liam Lynch, features recurring characters such as Lee the superfan and Sasquatch. Tim Robbins cameos as does Dave Grohl as Satan. Ben Stiller also makes an appearance as a worker at Guitar Center, and also another appearance in the music video for "Tribute".

Tenacious D helped the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation to raise awareness and funds in San Diego on June 16, 2007. Tenacious D can be seen performing in the Pauly Shore film ''Bio-Dome'' where the duo is performing its song "The Five Needs" at a "Save the Environment" party. Black was also a guest star on an episode of ''The Ellen Degeneres Show'' entitled "Ellen the Musical", alongside Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth and teenage singer-actress Olivia Olson. On the show, besides singing, he discussed his then-upcoming film ''Nacho Libre'' with the host.

Black has also appeared on Dave Grohl's ''Probot'' album, providing vocals for the hidden song "I Am The Warlock", and Lynch's ''Fake Songs'' album, providing vocals for the song "Rock and Roll Whore". Black performed a cover of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" in the last sequence of ''High Fidelity''. He lent his musical abilities to the Queens of the Stone Age song "Burn the Witch" with rhythmic stomps and claps, some performed with his eyes closed. He also provided vocals for The Lonely Island's track "Sax Man" from the album ''Incredibad''.

Black has also recorded a duet on Meat Loaf's new CD Hang Cool Teddy Bear. The song is called Like a Rose. Meat Loaf has also played Black's father in the Pick of Destiny movie. Hang Cool Teddy Bear also features Hugh Laurie, Kara Dioguardi, Brian May, Steve Vai & Patti Russo, produced by Rob Cavallo.

Black has appeared in music videos of Beck "Sexx Laws"; Foo Fighters "Learn To Fly", "Low", and "The One"; The Eagles of Death Metal's "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)"; Sum 41's "Things I Want"; Dio's "Push"; and Weezer's "Photograph."

In October 2010, Tenacious D appeared at BlizzCon 2010, a convention hosted by the game designers, Blizzard Entertainment.

Personal life

In January 2006, Black became engaged to Tanya Haden. She is the daughter of the jazz double bassist Charlie Haden, and sister of violinist and singer Petra Haden. Haden herself is an accomplished cellist. Both attended Crossroads school and met again 15 years after graduating, at a friend's birthday party. Black proposed marriage around Christmas 2005. They married on March 14, 2006, in Big Sur, California. Their son, Samuel Jason "Sammy" Black, was born on June 10, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. On May 23, 2008, Black and his wife had their second son, Thomas David Black.

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1992	''Bob Roberts''	Roger Davis
1993		Augie
1993		Wasteland Scrap
1994	''The NeverEnding Story III''	Slip, Leader of the Nasties
1995		DJ at Party
1995		Craig Poncelet
1995	''Waterworld''	Pilot
1996	''Bio-Dome''	Tenacious D
1996	''The Cable Guy''	Rick
1996		Broadcast Technician
1996	''Mars Attacks!''	Billy Glenn Norris
1997		Devlin
1997	''Crossworlds''	Steve
1997		Ian Lamont
1998		Fiedler
1998	''I Still Know What You Did Last Summer''	Titus Telesco
1998	''Johnny Skidmarks''	Jerry
1999	''Cradle Will Rock''	Sid
1999	''Jesus' Son''	Georgie
1999		Fisherman	uncredited
2000		Barry	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Nominated – American Comedy Award>American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion PictureNominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Music MomentNominated – MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Male PerformanceNominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
2001	''Frank's Book''	Performance Hipster	Short Film
2001	''Saving Silverman''	J.D. McNugent
2001	''Shallow Hal''	Hal Larson	Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Film- Choice Actor, Comedy
2002		Zeke	Voice only
2002		Lance Brumder
2002	''Run Ronnie Run''	Lead Chimney Sweep	DVD Exclusive Award for Best Original Song in a DVD Premiere
2003	''Melvin Goes to Dinner''	Mental Patient	uncreditedPhoenix Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble ActingNominated – DVD Exclusive Award for Best Supporting Actor in a DVD Premiere
2003	''School of Rock''	Dewey Finn
2004	''Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy''	Motorcyclist	uncredited (cameo)
2004		Nick Vanderpark	Nominated – People's Choice Award for Favorite Funny Male Star
2004	''Laser Fart''	The Elegant Hunter	Video
2004	''Shark Tale''	Lenny	Voice only
2005		Carl Denham	Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Movies – Choice Sleazebag
2005	''Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie''	Carl Denham	voiceVideo gameSpike Video Game Award – Best Leading Male Performance
2006	''Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties''	Orson, Booker and Wolf
2006	''The Holiday''	Miles
2006	''Nacho Libre''	Nacho	Nominated – Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Male Movie StarNominated – MTV Movie Award for Best FightNominated – Teen Choice Award for Movies – Choice Actor: ComedyNominated – Teen Choice Award for Movies – Choice ChemistryNominated – Teen Choice Award for Movie – Choice Rumble
2006	''Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny''	Jack "Jables" Black (JB)
2007	''Margot at the Wedding''	Malcolm	Nominated – Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2007	''Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story''	Paul McCartney	Uncredited
2008	''Be Kind Rewind''	Jerry Gerber
2008	''Kung Fu Panda''	rowspan="2"	Voice onlyKids' Choice Award for Favorite Voice from an Animated MovieNominated – Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Character in a Motion Picture
2008	''The Secrets of the Furious Five''	VoiceShort film
2008		Jesus Christ	Viral videoshort
2008	''Tropic Thunder''	Jeff "Fats" Portnoy	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast
2008	''Tropic Thunder: Rain of Madness''	Jeff "Fats" Portnoy	Video
2009	''Brütal Legend''	Eddie Riggs	VoiceVideo gameSpike Video Game Award – Best Voice
2009		Zed
2010		Gulliver
2011	''Kung Fu Panda 2''		Voice onlyNominated - Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie Animated Voice
2011		Bernie Tiede	Premiered on June 16, 2011 at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
2011	''The Big Year''	Brad Harris	post-production
2011		Cameo Appearance	post-production
2012	''Frank or Francis''		pre-production

Television work

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1991	''Our Shining Moments''	Teenage Boy	TV Movie
1993	''The Golden Palace''	Taxi Driver	episode "Seems Like Old Times: Part 2"
1993		Skinhead	episode "Incident on Main"
1993	''Marked for Murder''	Car Thief	television film
1993	''Northern Exposure''	Kevin Wilkins	episode "A River Doesn't Run Through It"
1994		Private	television film
1994	''The Innocent''	Marty Prago	television film
1995		Tommy	episode "A Night at the Oprah"
1995		Man	episode "Brenda's Secret"
1995	''The Single Guy''	Randy	episode "Sister"
1995	''Touched By An Angel''	Monte	episode "Angels on the Air"
1995	''The X-Files''	Bart 'Zero' Liqouri	episode "D.P.O."
1995–1996	''Mr. Show with Bob and David''	Various	4 episodes
1995–1996	''Picket Fences''	Curtis Williams	2 episodes
1997–2000		JB	6
1999	''Heat Vision and Jack''	Jack	television pilot
2001	''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''	Himself	episode "Sweet for Brak"
2002	''2002 MTV Movie Awards''	Host
2002	''The Andy Dick Show''	J.D.	episode "Flipped"
2002	''Clone High''	Pusher/Larry Hardcore	episode "Raisin The Stakes"
2002	''Crank Yankers''	Tenacious D	episode "#1.3"
2002	''Jack Black: Spider-Man''	Spider-Man	MTV Movie Awards segment
2002	''Lord of the Piercing''	Jack the Elf	MTV Movie Awards segment''Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition'' easter egg
2002	''MADtv''	Tenacious D	episode "#7.22"
2002	''Panic Room with Will Ferrell''	Himself	MTV Movie Awards segment
2003	''Player$''	Tenacious D	episode "Tenacious D a la Mode"
2003	''Will & Grace''	Dr. Isaac Hershberg	episode "Nice in White Satin"
2003–2004		Computerman	6 episodes
2003–2004	''Time Belt''	Computerman	2 episodes
2004	''Cracking Up''	Brian	episode "Scared Straight"
2004	''Tom Goes to the Mayor''	Trapper JB	episode "Bear Traps"
2005	''Awesometown''	George Washington	television film
2006	''2006 Kids' Choice Awards''	Himself	Host
2007	''The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show''	Jables	episode "Break-Up"
2007	''The Simpsons''	Milo	episode "Husbands and Knives"
2008	''Sesame Street''	Himself	episode "The Golden Triangle Of Destiny"
2008	''2008 Kids' Choice Awards''	Himself	Host
2009		Sam	episode "Stress Relief"
2009	''Yo Gabba Gabba''	Himself	episode "New Friends"
2010		Buddy	episode "Investigative Journalism"
2010	''iCarly''	Aspartamay	episode ''iStart a Fanwar''
2010–2011	''Take Two with Phineas and Ferb''	Himself	2 episodes, "Jack Black" and "Neil Patrick Harris"
2010	"Space Ghost Coast to Coast special gag ad episode"	Himself (cameo)
2011	''Fish Hooks''	Chief	episode "Labor Day"
2011	''Big Time Rush''	Cupid	episode "Big Time Crush"
2011	''2011 Kids' Choice Awards''	Himself	Host, This will be the third time Jack Black has hosted the Kids Choice Awards, the last times being in 2008 and 2006.
2011	''American Idol''	Himself	Performed 'Fat Bottomed Girls' with American Idol contestant Casey Abrams.

References

External links

Margot at the Wedding

Suicide Girls interview

Jack Black in King Kong

The Tao of Jack Black, Steve Ramos, ''Cincinnati CityBeat'', October 8, 2003

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American film actors Category:Jewish American writers Category:American male singers Category:American voice actors Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:Actors from California Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish comedians Category:Musicians from California Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:Tenacious D Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

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