Question 1

True or false: Galois died in a duel at age 20, but the exact circumstances remain mysterious.

Accepted Answer

True. He died from a duel in 1832, but historians still debate whether it was over a woman, politics, or a police provocation.

Question 2

True or false: Galois wrote his groundbreaking mathematical theories the night before his duel.

Accepted Answer

True. He frantically outlined his group theory and solvability of equations in letters, famously writing 'I have no time.'

Question 3

True or false: Galois’s work was entirely ignored until the 20th century, when Einstein rediscovered it.

Accepted Answer

False. His papers were published 14 years after his death by Liouville, and influential by the late 1800s; Einstein had no role.

Question 4

True or false: Galois solved the quintic equation using radicals, proving it was always possible.

Accepted Answer

False. He proved the opposite: general quintics are unsolvable by radicals. Abel independently proved it earlier; Galois generalized the theory.

Question 5

True or false: Galois’s father was a mayor who committed suicide after a political smear campaign.

Accepted Answer

True. His father, Nicolas-Gabriel Galois, hanged himself in 1829 after being tormented by a forged, libelous poem.

Question 6

True or false: Galois invented the term 'group' in mathematics, but only for finite permutation groups.

Accepted Answer

True. He formally introduced 'groupe' in his 1830 memoir, though earlier mathematicians like Lagrange had hints of the concept.

Question 7

True or false: Galois failed the entrance exam for the École Polytechnique twice due to poor mathematical ability.

Accepted Answer

False. He failed because he refused to show his work or explain simple steps—his genius made him impatient, not incompetent.

Question 8

True or false: Galois was arrested and imprisoned for threatening the life of King Louis-Philippe.

Accepted Answer

True. He was jailed for republican activism and once toasted with a dagger, shouting 'To Louis-Philippe!'—a capital offense.

Évariste Galois Trivia Questions