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;
Nth root real number is a positive real number, negative numbers do not have real square roots. However, for every negative real number there are two imaginary square roots. For example, the square roots of −25 are 5"i" and −5"i", where "i" represents a number whose square is . A cube root of a number "x" is a number "r" whose cube is "x": Every real number "x" has exactly one real cube root, written formula_4. For example, Every real number has two additional complex cube roots. Expressing the degree of an "n"th root in its exponent form, as in formula_37, makes