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Abstract This brief paper attempts to indicate the motivation which led to the development of the finite element method by engineers and shows how later this became integrated with various current mathematical procedures. In the opinion of the writer, the broad definition of finite elements today includes all the known procedures of approximation for solving partial differential equations and allows the users to include a variety of methods which are mathematically acceptable. Copyright 2004 © John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
O.C. Zienkiewicz (2004) studied this question.