Electronic Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics

Boston, Massachusetts, March 21-24, 2013

Paper C040

This is an electronic reprint, reproduced by permission of Pearson Education Inc. Originally appeared in the Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics, ISBN-10: 0133866726, Copyright (C) 2014 by Pearson Education, Inc.


The Cyclotomic Equation and its Significance to Solving the Quintic Equation

Jay Villanueva


Florida Memorial University

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ABSTRACT

We investigate the properties of xn-1 for n = prime, and for a general n. Its significance is in connection with the attempts to solve the quintic equation. Another application is in the construction of regular polygons with a compass and straightedge.

Keyword(s): abstract algebra