A personal perspective on the history of the numerical analysis of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind

Abstract

This is a personal perspective on the development of numerical methods for solving Fredholm integral equations of the second kind, discussing work being done principally during the 1950s and 1960s. The principal types of numerical methods being studied were projection methods (Galerkin, collocation) and Nystrom methods. During the 1950s and 1960s, functional analysis became the framework for the analysis of numerical methods for solving integral equations, and this in‡uenced the questions being asked. This paper looks at the history of the analyses being done at that time.