Courant, Richard

Courant, Richard, and Herbert Robbins. What Is Mathematics ... 

Finite element methods — The finite element method is a powerful and flexible numerical technique for the approximate solution of (both ordinary and partial) differential equations involving replacing the continuous problem with unknown solution by a system of algebraic equations. The method was first introduced by Richard Courant in 1943 [i], and over the next three decades, and particularly in the 1960s, a comprehensive mathematical framework was developed to underpin the method. 

Hans Lewy was bom in the former German city Breslau, today s Wroelaw in Poland He completed his studies at Gottingen University, obtaining the PhD degree for a numerical boimdaiy-value problem which was tutored by Richard Courant. He was in 1927 appointed Privatdozent, similar to a Reader, and in 1928 published with Courant and Kurt O. 

The simplex method for optimization of weU-formed problems was introduced by American mathematician George Dantzig and demonstrates the value of numerical analysis in business. The finite element method was introduced in 1942 by German mathematician Richard Courant. 

Hund attended the universities at Gottingen and Marburg and took courses in mathematics, physics, geology, and geography. In Gottingen, he took a course on quantum theory given by Debye and studied partial differential equations with Richard Courant. When Hund decided to become a theoretical physicist, he started to work with Born on the physics of crystals (Gittertheorie), as many of Bom s students did, but he finally wrote his dissertation on the Ramsauer effect. 

Following on from this development came another independently derived but complementary analysis tool, the method of finite elements. Richard Courant (1888-1972), a German-Jewish mathematician, had come to America in 1933. Ten years later he found some particular approximate solutions for a series of vibrating systems and recognised that he had created a variation on the so-called Raleigh-Ritz ... 

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