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This formula can be straightforwardly transformed into a formula for the roots of a general cubic equation, using the back-substitution described in § Depressed cubic. The formula can be proved as follows: Starting from the equation t 3 + pt + q = 0, let us set t = u cos θ.
Cubic equations, which are polynomial equations of the third degree (meaning the highest power of the unknown is 3) can always be solved for their three solutions in terms of cube roots and square roots (although simpler expressions only in terms of square roots exist for all three solutions, if at least one of them is a rational number).
Vieta's formulas are then useful because they provide relations between the roots without having to compute them. For polynomials over a commutative ring that is not an integral domain, Vieta's formulas are only valid when a n {\displaystyle a_{n}} is not a zero-divisor and P ( x ) {\displaystyle P(x)} factors as a n ( x − r 1 ) ( x − r 2 ) …
The nested radicals in this solution cannot in general be simplified unless the cubic equation has at least one rational solution. Indeed, if the cubic has three irrational but real solutions, we have the casus irreducibilis, in which all three real solutions are written in terms of cube roots of complex numbers. On the other hand, consider the ...
Hero of Alexandria devised a method for calculating cube roots in the 1st century CE. [15] Methods for solving cubic equations and extracting cube roots appear in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, a Chinese mathematical text compiled around the 2nd century BCE and commented on by Liu Hui in the 3rd century CE. [16]
The derivative of a cubic function is a quadratic function. A cubic function with real coefficients has either one or three real roots (which may not be distinct); [1] all odd-degree polynomials with real coefficients have at least one real root. The graph of a cubic function always has a single inflection point.
Casus irreducibilis (from Latin 'the irreducible case') is the name given by mathematicians of the 16th century to cubic equations that cannot be solved in terms of real radicals, that is to those equations such that the computation of the solutions cannot be reduced to the computation of square and cube roots. Cardano's formula for solution in ...
For a general formula that is always true, one thus needs to choose a root of the cubic equation such that m ≠ 0. This is always possible except for the depressed equation y 4 = 0. Now, if m is a root of the cubic equation such that m ≠ 0, equation becomes