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Trigonometric solution in terms of real quantities
While casus irreducibilis cannot be solved in radicals in terms of real quantities, it can be solved trigonometrically in terms of real quantities.[7] Specifically, the depressed monic cubic equation $t^{3}+pt+q=0$ is solved by
$$ t_{k}=2{\sqrt {-{\frac {p}{3}}}}\cos \left[{\frac {1}{3}}\arccos \left({\frac {3q}{2p}}{\sqrt {\frac {-3}{p}}}\right)-k{\frac {2\pi }{3}}\right]\quad {\text{for}}\quad k=0,1,2\,.$$
These solutions are in terms of real quantities if and only if ${q^{{2}} \over 4}+{p^{{3}} \over 27}<0$ — i.e., if and only if there are three real roots. The formula involves starting with an angle whose cosine is known, trisecting the angle by multiplying it by 1/3, and taking the cosine of the resulting angle and adjusting for scale.
Although cosine and its inverse function (arccosine) are transcendental functions, this solution is algebraic in the sense that ${\displaystyle \cos \left[\arccos \left(x\right)/3\right]}$ is an algebraic function, equivalent to angle trisection.
REFERENCE
[7] Cox, David A. (2012), Galois Theory, Pure and Applied Mathematics (2nd ed.), John Wiley & Sons,
Section 1.3B Trigonometric Solution of the Cubic, pp. 18–19. |
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