Galois theory - provides a connection between field theory (A field is a mathematical entity for

which addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are well-defined) and group theory.
(Group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups. The concept of a group is
central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and
vector spaces can all be seen as groups endowed with additional operations and axioms)
Given a polynomial, it may be that some of the roots are connected by various algebraic
equations. The central idea of Galois theory is to consider those permutations (or
rearrangements) of the roots having the property that any algebraic equation satisfied by the
roots is still satisfied after the roots have been permuted. An important proviso is that we restrict
ourselves to algebraic equations whose coefficients are rational numbers. These permutations
together form a permutation group, also called the Galois group of the polynomial (over the
rational numbers).

Obviously, in either of these equations, if we exchange A and B, we obtain another true

statement. For example, the equation A + B = 4 becomes simply B + A = 4.
A similar discussion applies to any quadratic polynomial ax 2 + bx + c, where a, b and c are
rational numbers.

AbelRuffini theorem:
Why is there no formula for the roots of a 5th (or higher) degree polynomial equation in terms of
the coefficients of the polynomial, using only the usual algebraic operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division) and application of radicals (square roots, cube roots, etc)?
The notion of a solvable group in group theory allows one to determine whether a polynomial is
solvable in radicals, depending on whether its Galois group has the property of solvability. One of
the great triumphs of Galois Theory was the proof that for every n > 4, there exist polynomials of
degree n which are not solvable by radicalsthe AbelRuffini theorem. This is due to the fact that
for n > 4 the symmetric group Sn contains a simple, non-cyclic, normal subgroup, namely An.