Cube root the cube root of numbers having many digits in the "Aryabhatiya" (section 2.5). Cube root In mathematics, a cube root of a number "x" is a number "y" such that "y" = "x". All real numbers (except zero) have exactly one real cube root and a pair of complex conjugate cube roots, and all nonzero complex numbers have three distinct complex cube roots. For example, the real cube root of 8, denoted , is 2, because 2 = 8, while the other cube roots of 8 are −1 + "i" and −1 − "i". The three cube roots of −27"i"
Doubling the cube was the discovery by Hippocrates of Chios that it is equivalent to finding two mean proportionals between a line segment and another with twice the length. In modern notation, this means that given segments of lengths and , the duplication of the cube is equivalent to finding segments of lengths and so that In turn, this means that But Pierre Wantzel proved in 1837 that the cube root of 2 is not constructible; that is, it cannot be constructed with straightedge and compass. Menaechmus' original solution involves the intersection of two conic curves. Other more complicated methods of doubling the