The mathematicians Abel and Galois both dealt with the problem that whether an irreducible equation of prime degree could be solvable by radicals.Abel gave a criterion theorem before Galois.Because of the similarity in expression with the Galois's theorem,some later scholars believed that Abel had already got results almost iden-tical to Galois's theorem,and Abel was in possession of this theorem before Galois.By analyzing the original texts and tracing the historical reviews,this paper points out that there are unavoidable problems in Abel's theorem,showing it is not equivalent to Galois's theorem,and reveals that Abel did not discover Galois'theorem ahead of Galois.At the same time,we explore the originality of the Galois's theorem and the thought source of Abel's re-sults,using this case to illustrate how the history of mathematics allows us to correctly view the methods and signifi-cance of past mathematics.
AbelGalois's theoremequation of prime degreesolvable by radicalshistory of mathematics
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