Cube root polar angle by three in order to define a cube root. With this definition, the principal cube root of a negative number is a complex number, and for instance will not be −2, but rather . This difficulty can also be solved by considering the cube root as a multivalued function: if we write the original complex number "x" in three equivalent forms, namely The principal complex cube roots of these three forms are then respectively Unless , these three complex numbers are distinct, even though the three representations of "x" were equivalent. For example, may then be calculated to
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