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The negative and positive numbers (integers and all the values between them) along with zero can be represented on a numberline stretching infinitely in both directions
For most people that’s the end of the story – we usually don’t need other types of number to survive
in life. Or do we?
Impossible Square Roots
Mathematicians of the Renaissance, armed with algebraic methods and newly invented symbols,
began to tackle a difficult equation: the cubic. A cubic equation contains the variable multiplied
by itself three times (compare with a quadratic equation which has the variable “squared” --- multiplied with itself twice). A method for solving quadratic equations was well known. Mathematicians
eventually found a method for solving cubic equations.
A simple cubic equation is x^3-15x-4=0. Mathematicians applied the algorithm for solving it and
one of the intermediate steps generated this fearful expression:
ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014