Methods of conjugate gradients for solving linear systems

An iterative algorithm is given for solving a system Ax=k of n linear equations in n unknowns. The solution is given in n steps. It is shown that this method is a special case of a very general method which also includes Gaussian elimination. These general algorithms are essentially algorithms for finding an n dimensional ellipsoid. Connections are made with the theory of orthogonal polynomials and continued fractions.