General comments and conclusions

Abstract

We comment first on analytical methods. For most problems, exact solutions have not been obtained. Further, it seems likely that, in most cases, exact solutions would be monstrously complicated and hence very difficult to interpret. Inevitably, then, approximate methods will usually be required. We have shown that all the methods that have been used can mislead the unwary.

What Song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling Questions, are not beyond all conjecture.

Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial