Doubling the cube given length times . In music theory, a natural analogue of doubling is the octave (a musical interval caused by doubling the frequency of a tone), and a natural analogue of a cube is three repetitions of the same interval. In this sense, the problem of doubling the cube is solved by the major third in equal temperament. This is a musical interval that is exactly one third of an octave. It multiplies the frequency of a tone by , the side length of the Delian cube. Doubling the cube Doubling the cube, also known as the Delian problem, is
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