Overview of the finite element method in optical systems

The finite element method is today strongly identified with structural mechanics and it was, in fact, developed in the middle third of this century by the structures community in order to achieve useful solutions in the field of the general theory of elasticity. It is often overlooked however that in the preceding centuries that were required for the development of the general theory of elasticity, the effort was driven by and often spearheaded by the very physicists and mathematicians who were hypothesizing about molecules, gravity, electro-magnetics and all the other disciplines that today make up the over-all field of "mechanics." It is not possible to appreciate the present status of the finite element method without understanding its origins.