The first systematic methods of Fourier analysis date from the early eighteenth century with the work of Joseph Fourier on the problem of the flow of heat. (A brief history is contained in the first paper.) Given the initial tempera ture at all points of a region, the problem was to determine the changes in the temperature distribution over time. Understanding and predicting these changes was important in such areas as the handling of metals and the determination of geological and atmospheric temperatures. Briefly, Fourier noticed that the solution of the heat diffusion problem was simple if...