Cube (algebra) however, easy to show that most numbers are not perfect cubes because "all" perfect cubes must have digital root 1, 8 or 9. That is their values modulo 9 may be only −1, 1 and 0. Moreover, the digital root of any number's cube can be determined by the remainder the number gives when divided by 3: Every positive integer can be written as the sum of nine (or fewer) positive cubes. This upper limit of nine cubes cannot be reduced because, for example, 23 cannot be written as the sum of fewer than nine positive cubes: The equation has
Cube root solution expressions involve the real cube root of a real number, while if all three solutions are real numbers then they may be expressed in terms of the complex cube root of a complex number. Quartic equations can also be solved in terms of cube roots and square roots. The calculation of cube roots can be to traced back to Babylonian mathematicians from as early as 1800 BCE. In the fourth century BCE Plato posed the problem of doubling the cube, which required a compass-and-straightedge construction of the edge of a cube with twice the volume of a given cube;