Feel free to skip to 10:28 to see how to develop Vladimir Arnold's amazingly beautiful argument for the non-existence of a general algebraic formula for solving quintic equations! This result, known as the Abel-Ruffini theorem, is usually proved by Galois theory, which is hard and not very intuitive. But this approach uses little more than some basic properties of complex numbers. (PS: I forgot to mention Abel's original approach, which is a bit grim, and gives very little intuition at all!) 00:00 Introduction 01:58 Complex Number Refresher 04:11 Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (Proof) 10:28 The Symmetry of Solutions to Polynomials 22:47 Why Roots Aren't Enough 28:29 Why Nested Roots Aren't Enough 37:01 Onto The Quintic 41:03 Conclusion Paper mentioned: Video mentioned: