The main problems of numerical analysis involve performing analytical operations, such as integration, differentiation, finding zeroes, interpolation, and so forth, of a function when all the data available are some samples of the function. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the following problem: given a set of data points (x[sub i], y[sub i]) which are samples of some function, determine an approximating function. Further, extend the problem to that of determining an approximating function for a surface given some samples (x[sub i], y[sub j], z[sub ij]) of the surface.

This thesis is an investigation of some of the properties of polynomial rings, unique factorization domains, Euclidean domains, and principal ideal domains. The nature of some of the relationships between each of the above systems is also developed in this paper.

This thesis describes various forms of metric spaces and establishes some of the properties of functions defined on metric spaces. No attempt is made in this paper to examine a particular type of function in detail. Instead, some of properties of several kinds of functions will be observed as the functions are defined on various forms of metric spaces such as connected spaces, compact spaces, complete spaces, etc.