Up until the early 1800s, mathematicians were able to find some answers for specific cases of these unsolved problems. Unfortunately, no one had given a reason (or, proof) for any equation. It was French mathematician Évariste Galois (25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) who was the first to find a solution, explaining why certain equations like 2nd, 3rd, and 4th degree polynomials did have nice solution formulas, but other equations, like 5th degree and above, cannot have a formula. The answer boiled down to reducing the problem of the equations's field to the equation's group; Galois proved that the two had a connection.