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. 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.