The "Cubic Formula"

Introduction.

Knowledge of the quadratic formula is older than the Pythagorean Theorem. Solving a cubic equation, on the other hand, was the first major success story of Renaissance mathematics in Italy. The solution was first published by Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) in his Algebra book Ars Magna. Our objective is to find a real root of the cubic equation ax3+bx2+cx+d=0. The other two roots (real or complex) can then be found by polynomial division and the quadratic formula. The solution proceeds in two steps. First, the cubic equation is "depressed"; then one solves the depressed cubic.
Depressing the cubic equation.

This trick, which transforms the general cubic equation into a new cubic equation with missing x2-term is due to Nicolo Fontana Tartaglia (15001557). We apply the substitution

to the cubic equation, to obtain:

Multiplying out and simplifying, we obtain the "depressed" cubic

Let's try this for the example 2x3-30x2+162x-350=0. Our substitution will be x=y+5; expanding and simplifying, we obtain the depressed cubic equation y3+6y-20=0.

Solving the depressed cubic.

We are left with solving a depressed cubic equation of the form y3+Ay=B. How to do this had been discovered earlier by Scipione dal Ferro (1465-1526). We will find s and t so that
3st s -t
3 3

= =

A B.

(1) (2)

It turns out that y=s-t will be a solution of the depressed cubic. Let's check that: Replacing A, B and y as indicated transforms our equation into (s-t)3+3st (s-t)=s3-t3. This is true since we can simplify the left side by using the binomial formula to: (s3-3s2t+3st2-t3)+(3s2t-3st2)=s3-t3.

How can we find s and t satisfying (1) and (2)? Solving the first equation for s and substituting into (2) yields:

Simplifying, this turns into the "tri-quadratic" equation

which using the substitution u=t3 becomes the quadratic equation

From this, we can find a value for u by the quadratic formula, then obtain t, afterwards s and we're done. Let's do the computation for our example y3+6y=20. We need s and t to satisfy
3st s -t
3 3

= =

6 20.

(3) (4)

Solving for s in (3) and substituting the result into (4) yields:

which multiplied by t3 becomes t6+20t3-8=0. Using the quadratic formula, we obtain that

We will discard the negative root, then take the cube root to obtain t:

By Equation (4),

Our solution y for the depressed cubic equation is the difference of s and t:

The solution to our original cubic equation 2x3-30x2+162x-350=0 is given by

Concluding remarks.

I will not discuss a slight problem you can encounter, if you follow the route outlined. What problem am I talking about? Shortly after the discovery of a method to solve the cubic equation, Lodovico Ferraria (1522-1565), a student of Cardano, found a similar method to solve the quartic equation. This section is loosely based on a chapter in the book Journey Through Genius by William Dunham.

Exercise 1.

Show that y=2 is a solution of our depressed cubic y3+6y-20=0.

4

Then find the other two roots. Which of the roots equals our solution