Mathematician:Évariste Galois

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Mathematician

EvaristeGalois.jpg

French mathematician famous for dying at the age of 20 as the result of a duel.

Despite his total collected works amounting to a mere 60 pages or so, he had a significant influence in the development of the field of group theory. He was in fact the first person to use the word group in a technical sense.

His innovative approach to the problem of the insolubility of the quintic led to the field known now as Galois theory.


There has been a lot of old rubbish written about Galois, not least the overly-romanticised account of his life as given by Eric Temple Bell in his Men of Mathematics.

For a rather more balanced and sober account, see the Historical Introduction in Ian Stewart's Galois Theory, 3rd ed..


Nationality

French


History

  • Born: 25 Oct 1811, Bourg La Reine (near Paris), France
  • Died: 31 May 1832, Paris, France


Theorems and Definitions

Results named for Évariste Galois can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Évariste Galois can be found here.


Publications

Sources