How to solve third degree equations without moving to complex numbers.

Dawidowicz, Antoni Leon

During the Renaissance, the theory of algebraic equations developed in Europe. It is about finding a solution to the equation of the form anxn ... represented by coefficients subject to algebraic operations and roots of any degree. In the 16th century, algorithms for the third and fourth-degree equations appeared. Only in the nineteenth century, a similar algorithm for the higher degree was proved impossible. In (Cardano, 1545) described an algorithm for solving third-degree equations. In the current version of this algorithm, one has to take roots of complex numbers that even Cardano did not know. This work proposes an algorithm for solving third-degree algebraic equations using only algebraic operations on real numbers and elementary functions taught at High School.

EUROPE; ALGEBRAIC equations; MATHEMATICS problems & exercises; MATHEMATICS education (Secondary); REAL numbers; MATHEMATICAL functions; RENAISSANCE

Annales Universitates Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia ad Didacticam Mathematicae Pertinentia, 2020, p123

2080-9751

Academic Journal

10.24917/20809751.12.6