Spline Functions and Multivariate Interpolations

Spline functions entered Approximation Theory as solutions of natural extremal problems. A typical example is the problem of drawing a function curve through given n + k points that has a minimal norm of its k-th derivative. Isolated facts about the functions, now called splines, can be found in the papers of L. Euler, A. Lebesgue, G. Birkhoff, J. Favard, L. Tschakaloff. However, the Theory of Spl...