ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (1) to introduce and discuss a number of concepts and fundamental results of a mathematical nature which will be used whenever necessary in the course of our analysis of linear vibrations, and (2) to provide the reader with some notions which are important for a more advanced and more mathematically oriented approach to the subject matter of this text. In this light, some sections of this chapter can be skipped in a first reading and considered only after having read the chapters that follow, in particular Chapters 6-9.
