Rational root theorem are found, they can be factored out of the polynomial, resulting in a polynomial of lower degree whose roots are also roots of the original polynomial. The general cubic equation with integer coefficients has three solutions in the complex plane. If it is found by the rational root test that there are no rational solutions, then the only way to express the solutions algebraically is to use cube roots. But if the test finds three rational solutions, then the cube roots are avoided. And if precisely one rational solution "r" is found to exist, then ("x" – "r") can be
Cube root this required the construction, now known to be impossible, of the length . A method for extracting cube roots appears in "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art", a Chinese mathematical text compiled around the 2nd century BCE and commented on by Liu Hui in the 3rd century CE. The Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria devised a method for calculating cube roots in the 1st century CE. His formula is again mentioned by Eutokios in a commentary on Archimedes. In 499 CE Aryabhata, a mathematician-astronomer from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy, gave a method for finding