Born: 5 Aug 1802 in Frindoe, Norway
Died: 6 April 1829 in Froland, Norway
Norwegian mathematician who accomplished an amazing amount of brilliant work in his short lifetime that rank him as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 19th century.
At the age of 16, Abel investigated generalization of the binomial theorem for all numbers. A student at the Univ. of Christiania (Oslo), he gave a proof of the impossiblity of representing a solution of a general equation of fifth degree or higher by a radical expression. To do this, he invented (independently of Galois) an extremely important branch of mathematics known as group theory, which is invaluable not only in many areas of mathematics, but for much of physics as well. Commutative groups are also called Abelian groups in his honor. Among his other accomplishments, Abel pioneered in the general theory of elliptic functions, and showed that elliptic functions are a generalization of trigonometric ones.
May 15, 2002