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;
Principal root of unity Principal root of unity In mathematics, a principal "n"-th root of unity (where "n" is a positive integer) of a ring is an element formula_1 satisfying the equations In an integral domain, every primitive "n"-th root of unity is also a principal formula_3-th root of unity. In any ring, if formula_3 is a power of formula_5, then any formula_6-th root of formula_7 is a principal formula_3-th root of unity. A non-example is formula_9 in the ring of integers modulo formula_10; while formula_11 and thus formula_9 is a cube root of unity, formula_13 meaning that it is not a "principal" cube