History of Continued Fractions and Padé Approximants

This text examines the concept of continued fractions which is one of the oldest in the history of mathematics. It can be traced back to Euclid's algorithm for the greatest common divisor or even earlier. Continued fractions and Pade approximants played an important role in the development of many branches of mathematics, such as the spectral theory of operators, and in the solution of famous problems, such as the quadrature of the circle.