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Re:Galois Theory for Beginners (2010) [pdf] by waqf on Monday July 03, 2017 @07:35PM (#14692260)
You are right but I don't think the audience here (people trying to learn Galois theory for the first time) will understand your comment either. The original paper didn't even make clear that a_i are the coefficients and x_i are the roots … that's the level at which we need to be clarifying.
Re:Galois Theory for Beginners (2010) [pdf] by ky3 on Monday July 03, 2017 @07:42PM (#14692306)
The HN audience isn't the intended audience for this paper by Stillwell, who wrote for other math profs like himself.

To members of HN audience who want to learn GT, I recommend the freely available book by Postnikov.

p.s. Fwiw, the paper did make clear the distinction between the a_i, x_i, and the alpha_i. See the second page proper of TFA.