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Cubic Formula

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(1)
(the coefficient
of may be taken as 1 without loss of generality by dividing the entire equation through by ).
The Wolfram Language can solve cubic equations exactly using the built-in command Solve[a3 x^3 + a2 x^2 +
a1 x + a0 == 0, x]. The solution can also be expressed in terms of the Wolfram Language algebraic root objects by
first issuing SetOptions[Roots, Cubics -> False].
The solution to the cubic (as well as the quartic) was published by Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576) in his treatise Ars
Magna. However, Cardano was not the original discoverer of either of these results. The hint for the cubic had been
provided by Niccol Tartaglia, while the quartic had been solved by Ludovico Ferrari. However, Tartaglia himself had
probably caught wind of the solution from another source. The solution was apparently first arrived at by a littleremembered professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna by the name of Scipione del Ferro (ca. 14651526). While del Ferro did not publish his solution, he disclosed it to his student Antonio Maria Fior (Boyer and
Merzbach 1991, p.283). This is apparently where Tartaglia learned of the solution around 1541.
To solve the general cubic (1), it is reasonable to begin by attempting to eliminate the
of the form

term by making a substitution

(2)

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Then
(3)
(4)

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Last updated: Wed May 13 2015

Created, developed,
and
nurturedbyEricWeisstein
at WolframResearch

Does the set of perfect numbers

contain 18?

The cubic formula is the closed-form solution for a cubic equation, i.e., the roots of a cubic polynomial. A general cubic
equation is of the form

(5)
The

is eliminated by letting

, so
(6)

Then
(7)
(8)
(9)
so equation () becomes
(10)
(11)
(12)

Defining
(13)
(14)

then allows () to be written in the standard form

(15)
The simplest way to proceed is to make Vieta's substitution
(16)
which reduces the cubic to the equation
(17)

which is easily turned into a quadratic equation in

by multiplying through by

to obtain
(18)

(Birkhoff and Mac Lane 1996, p.106). The result from the quadratic formula is
(19)

(20)

(21)
where and are sometimes more useful to deal with than are and . There are therefore six solutions for (two
corresponding to each sign for each root of ). Plugging back in to (19) gives three pairs of solutions, but each pair
is equal, so there are three solutions to the cubic equation.

Equation () may also be explicitly factored by attempting to pull out a term of the form
from the cubic
equation, leaving behind a quadratic equation which can then be factored using the quadratic formula. This process is
equivalent to making Vieta's substitution, but does a slightly better job of motivating Vieta's "magic" substitution, and
also at producing the explicit formulas for the solutions. First, define the intermediate variables
(22)
(23)

(which are identical to

and

up to a constant factor). The general cubic equation () then becomes

(24)

Let

and

be, for the moment, arbitrary constants. An identity satisfied by perfect cubic polynomial equations is that
(25)

The general cubic would therefore be directly factorable if it did not have an term (i.e., if
). However, since in
general
, add a multiple of
--say
--to both sides of (25) to give the slightly messy identity
(26)
which, after regrouping terms, is
(27)
We would now like to match the coefficients

and

with those of equation (), so we must have

(28)
(29)

Plugging the former into the latter then gives

(30)
Therefore, if we can find a value of satisfying the above identity, we have factored a linear term from the cubic, thus
reducing it to a quadratic equation. The trial solution accomplishing this miracle turns out to be the symmetrical
expression
(31)

Taking the second and third powers of

gives
(32)
(33)
(34)

(35)

(36)
(37)
(38)
Plugging

and

into the left side of () gives

(39)

so we have indeed found the factor

of (), and we need now only factor the quadratic part. Plugging
into the quadratic part of () and solving the resulting
(40)
then gives the solutions
(41)
(42)
(43)
These can be simplified by defining
(44)
(45)
(46)
(47)
so that the solutions to the quadratic part can be written
(48)
Defining
(49)
(50)
(51)
where

is the polynomial discriminant (which is defined slightly differently, including the opposite sign, by Birkhoff

and Mac Lane 1996) then gives very simple expressions for

and , namely
(52)
(53)

Therefore, at last, the roots of the original equation in are then given by
(54)
(55)
(56)
with
the coefficient of in the original equation, and and as defined above. These three equations giving the
three roots of the cubic equation are sometimes known as Cardano's formula. Note that if the equation is in the
standard form of Vieta
(57)
in the variable , then
1987)

, and

, and the intermediate variables have the simple form (cf. Beyer
(58)
(59)
(60)

The solutions satisfy Vieta's formulas

(61)
(62)
(63)
In standard form (),

, and

, so eliminating

gives
(64)

for

, and eliminating

gives
(65)

for

. In addition, the properties of the symmetric polynomials appearing in Vieta's formulas give
(66)
(67)
(68)
(69)

The equation for in Cardano's formula does not have an appearing in it explicitly while and do, but this does
not say anything about the number of real and complex roots (since and are themselves, in general, complex).
However, determining which roots are real and which are complex can be accomplished by noting that if the
polynomial discriminant
, one root is real and two are complex conjugates; if
, all roots are real and at least
two are equal; and if
, all roots are real and unequal. If
, define
(70)

Then the real solutions are of the form

(71)
(72)
(73)

This procedure can be generalized to find the real roots for any equation in the standard form () by using the identity
(74)
(Dickson 1914) and setting
(75)

(Birkhoff and Mac Lane 1996, pp.90-91), then

(76)
(77)
(78)

If

, then use
(79)

to obtain
(80)
If

and

, use
(81)

and if

and

, use
(82)

to obtain

(83)

The solutions to the original equation are then

(84)

An alternate approach to solving the cubic equation is to use Lagrange resolvents (Faucette 1996). Let
define

,
(85)
(86)
(87)

where

are the roots of

(88)

and consider the equation

(89)
where

and

are complex numbers. The roots are then

(90)

for

, 1, 2. Multiplying through gives

(91)

which can be written in the form (88), where

(92)
(93)
Some curious identities involving the roots of a cubic equation due to Ramanujan are given by Berndt (1994).

SEE ALSO:

Casus Irreducibilis, Cubic Equation, Cubic Polynomial, Polynomial Discriminant, Quadratic Equation, Quartic Equation,
Quintic Equation, Sextic Equation
REFERENCES:
Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I.A. (Eds.). Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables,
9th printing. New York: Dover, p.17, 1972.
Berger, M. 16.4.1-16.4.11.1 in Geometry I. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994.
Berndt, B.C. Ramanujan's Notebooks, Part IV. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp.22-23, 1994.
Beyer, W.H. CRC Standard Mathematical Tables, 28th ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp.9-11, 1987.
Birkhoff, G. and Mac Lane, S. A Survey of Modern Algebra, 5th ed. New York: Macmillan, pp.90-91, 106-107, and 414-417, 1996.
Borwein, P. and Erdlyi, T. "Cubic Equations." 1.1.E.1b in Polynomials and Polynomial Inequalities. New York: Springer-Verlag,
p.4, 1995.
Boyer, C.B. and Merzbach, U.C. A History of Mathematics, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, pp.282-286, 1991.
Dickson, L.E. "A New Solution of the Cubic Equation." Amer. Math. Monthly 5, 38-39, 1898.
Dickson, L.E. Elementary Theory of Equations. New York: Wiley, pp.36-37, 1914.
Dunham, W. "Cardano and the Solution of the Cubic." Ch.6 in Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics. New
York: Wiley, pp.133-154, 1990.
Ehrlich, G. 4.16 in Fundamental Concepts of Abstract Algebra. Boston, MA: PWS-Kent, 1991.
Faucette, W.M. "A Geometric Interpretation of the Solution of the General Quartic Polynomial." Amer. Math. Monthly 103, 51-57,
1996.
Jones, J. "Omar Khayym and a Geometric Solution of the Cubic."
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt669/Student.Folders/Jones.June/omar/omarpaper.html.
Kennedy, E.C. "A Note on the Roots of a Cubic." Amer. Math. Monthly 40, 411-412, 1933.
King, R.B. Beyond the Quartic Equation. Boston, MA: Birkhuser, 1996.
Lichtblau, D. "Various Ways to Tackle Algebraic Equations with Mathematica." 1998 WorldWide Mathematica Conference.
http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/Conferences/337/.
Press, W.H.; Flannery, B.P.; Teukolsky, S.A.; and Vetterling, W.T. "Quadratic and Cubic Equations." 5.6 in Numerical Recipes in
FORTRAN: The Art of Scientific Computing, 2nd ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp.178-180, 1992.
Spanier, J. and Oldham, K.B. "The Cubic Function
Washington, DC: Hemisphere, pp.131-147, 1987.

and Higher Polynomials." Ch.17 in An Atlas of Functions.

van der Waerden, B.L. 64 in Algebra. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1970.
Whittaker, E.T. and Robinson, G. "The Solution of the Cubic." 62 in The Calculus of Observations: A Treatise on Numerical
Mathematics, 4th ed. New York: Dover, pp.124-126, 1967.

Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha: Cubic Formula

CITE THIS AS:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Cubic Formula." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CubicFormula.html

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