Constructing Regular Polygons
Some regular polygons (e.g. a pentagon) are easy to construct with straightedge and compass; others are not. This led to the question: Is it possible to construct all regular polygons with straightedge and compass?
Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1796 showed that a regular n-sided polygon can be constructed with straightedge and compass if the odd prime factors of n are distinct Fermat primes. Gauss conjectured that this condition was also necessary, but he offered no proof of this fact, which was provided by Pierre Wantzel in 1837.
Read more about this topic: Compass And Straightedge Constructions
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