Cube root some contexts, particularly when the number whose cube root is to be taken is a real number, one of the cube roots (in this particular case the real one) is referred to as the "principal cube root", denoted with the radical sign . The cube root operation is associative with exponentiation and distributive with multiplication and division if considering only real numbers, but not always if considering complex numbers: for example, the cube of any cube root of 8 is 8, but the three cube roots of 8 are 8, −4 + 4"i", and −4 − 4"i". The cube roots
Nth root real. Finally, if "x" is not real, then none of its "n"th roots is real. Roots are usually written using the radical symbol or "radix" with formula_2 denoting the principal square root of formula_3, formula_4 denoting the principal cube root, formula_5 denoting the principal fourth root, and so on. In the expression formula_6, "n" is called the "index", formula_7 is the "radical sign" or "radix", and formula_3 is called the "radicand". Since the radical symbol denotes a function, it is defined to return only one result for a given argument formula_3, which is called the principal "n"th root of formula_3.