"So my friend, still in mathematics?" "You'd better practice" "That's better." "Keep going, and you'll make short work of your rival." "Beware friend !" "Wrong target." "He's not the enemy." "Does this interest you?" "Very much." "Those are substitutions?" "As you can see." "What is it for?" "To solve equations." "Of what order?" "None could solve anything beyond forth order." "Even Abel...." "Abel was a genius !" "People like you let him die at 25 of hunger and pneumonia" "Cauchy didn't even read his thesis" "He found it was written with an ink too pale..." "Are you at the Polytechnic?" "I failed." "Twice." "I know." "You threw a duster at the examiner." "Working on equations?" "That problem is solved." "I said : it's solved." "I've discovered the necessary and sufficient condition for the solvability of general equations by radicals." "That would be a good result." "Beyond the 4th order this is usually impossible, as Abel conjectured." "My proof is based on the fact that in the group of permutations of the letters we cannot have, for n above 4 any normal subgroup other than the subgroup of even permutations." "I don't see what that has to do with equations." "But it's obvious." "Think." "Instead of letter, simply put the n roots of an nth order equation" "You get the complete set of possible permutations." " Does this method give an applicable result?" " Sure it does" "The calculations are not practical." "Life is too short." "So, what is the use of all this?" "To solve the problem once and for all" "and to explain a lot of things that at first sight don't have anything to do with equations." "That's what bothers me with your approach." "Why?" "You do not calculate, you speculate." "I try to think." "Using vague evidence, which have nothing to do with your subject." "Because it's the same thing!" "I could have talked about rotation in space, series of numbers, or cristals symetry." "The immediate data represented by equations and fonctions do not matter" "What is important is what is behind, their common structure." "We are not at the botanical garden." "We are not going to worry for centuries about single problems in little boxes..." "Let's have a little bit of imagination." "Leave that to the poets." "We are talking of algebra." "Not generalities." "Mathematics also have generalities." "The logic of reasoning..." "In algebra, the reasoning is calculations." "Where are yours?" "Well, I'm listening." "Prove what you have said." "I can follow a proof." "It's my job, you see." "Go away..." "You are unable to understand." "You are just as stupid as the others." "There is nothing to understand, Galois." "You are dreaming." "What you are trying to prove is nonsense." "Get out !" "You already have a duel to handle" "In tribute to your political bravery, I came to asssist you..." "Just listen to this." "I may not be a genius, but I am certainly good enough as a mathematician to assure you that there isn't in Europe any single person who can follow your reasoning." "Whether you are a prophet or a fool, the result is the same." "You'll find none to convey your thoughts." "What counts in science, Galois, is its positive aspect." "The misunderstood, the unknown cannot find any place" "You have wasted your time." "Leave me now." "I fight very early in the morning." "I don't have much time." "What are you doing Evariste?" "You are not going to work?" "I though I told you to go away" "That's suicide..." "Have some rest" "Your only chance to get away tomorrow is to practice all night then have some sleep" "Mind your own business please." "Galois!" "Don't go to this duel tomorrow" "It will be butchery." "Why?" "You think I canot handle a gun?" "Don't be afraid." "Geometrician have a military mind." "They have great success in artillery." "And the one I'm figthing for will inspire my hand." "It's not my first duel anyway" "I carried out my revolutionary duty" "And I even went to jail" "Precisely!" "They have not forgotten" "You now..." "A duel may be arranged" "What a good opportunity to get rid of an annoying enemy" "I was not that dangerous..." "It was so long ago..." "It's late now." "Too late to change anything to my plans." "I fight tomorrow at dawn." "Evariste!" "Did you understand what I tried to explain to that idiot?" "You know I'am not smart enough." "Then you can't help me." "Leave me alone." "I still have a lot of work before tomorrow." "And not much time left." "So, in the silence of the night," "Galois set to work one more time." "How many nights like this has he spent in different rooms?" "The table, the four walls." "The only world he has ever known." "The study room in college, the dormitory in the university," "and the stinking cell in prison." "Straight from the classroom to the barricades... and from the barricades to prison." "He has been studying mathematics for six years only." "He started when he was 15 and now he is 22." "In a few hours he will be dead." "That's sure now." "Don't be in a hurry Galois." "You've got plenty of time." "Your friend the cadet was right." "There isn't in Europe today one single person who may understand what you are writing." "In fifty years, maybe." "In a hundred." "You must forgive to Poisson, to Cauchy, to the Academy, who rejected your thesis," "They could not understand, that's all." "You are not the first, Galois." "Remember Abel." "Maybe in fifty years." "You've still got plenty of time." "What did you see of life, Evariste?" "Nothing." "So few." "Nothing but the pride in having invented." "This fever of conquering intelligence that fascinates itself to know it gave birth to a new field." "I'm ready, Sir." "Sirs, a duel will start, between M. Duchatelet and M. Evariste Galois" "The distance between the marks is 30 feets" "Between the handkerchiefs, 20 feets" "At the starting signal, each man may go from his place to the handherchief, and shoot." "But he may also shot without moving." "After the first shot, the other party has one minute to shoot." "As agreed, guns will be drawn by your witnesses." "Sirs, do you agree?" " M. Duchatelet?" " Yes, I agree." "And you, M. Galois?" "Do you agree with what I've just said?" "M. Galois?" "!" "Yes, I agree." "Sirs, you may choose the guns." "You may go." "M. Galois, you have 1 minute to stand up and shoot." "Here comes the police." "Run." "You too, Sir." "Run." "Help!" "Picked up by a farmer, and brought to Cochin Hospital," "Galois died on May 31, 1832." "The morning after." "It took 14 years to have a first edition of Galois work, in Liouvillle's journal." "40 years for Camille Jordan to dedicate him his Traité des substitutions, in 1870." "But nowdays, any student in Mathematics, knows the name of fields containing a finite number of elements." "These fields are named "Galois fields"."