Niels Henrik Abel was a Norwegian mathematician who is most famous for having proved that fifth and higher order equations have no algebraic solution. Had he not died prematurely at the age of 26, it is speculated that he might have become one of the most prominent mathematicians of the 19th century. He provided the first general proof of the binomial theorem and made significant discoveries concerning elliptic functions.

Abel was born in Finnöy, on the southwestern coast of Norway, on August 5, 1802. He was the second son of Sören Georg Abel, a Lutheran minister, and Anne Marie nee Sorensen, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. In 1804, Abel's father was appointed to a new parish and the family moved to Gjerstad, in southern Norway. Abel received his early education from his father, and in 1815 he was sent to the Cathedral School in Oslo. There, he rapidly...