50 Year classic reprint: An appreciation of R. Courant's ‘variational methods for the solution of problems of equilibrium and vibrations,’ 1943

Abstract

Fifty years elapsed since the appearance of the title paper, in Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 49, 1-23 (1943), and twenty six since my original encounter with it. I first read it in 1967 during an internal workshop on the origins of the finite element method (FEM), held at UC Berkeley, where I was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. I must admit at not having been overly impressed - the pride of having just finished a thesis in refined elements coupled with the arrogance of youth to dismiss what to me seemed like tricial hand calculations for a simple torsion problem. Why, a 1967 CDC 6600 computer wrap those up in milliseconds...