Real Roots of Cubic Equation

(Tomas Co, 10/7/2014)

Objective: Given a cubic equation,
  +   +  +  = 0, find the condition when the

equation would yield three real roots, and find the roots.

Method: Use the Tschirnhaus-Vieta approach.

Let

3
 −   2  − 9
 + 27
 

= and  =
3
 27

1. Condition for all roots being real:  < 0
(if  > 0, only one real roots, see page 4 for this case)
2. Evaluation of the roots:

 = 2−
3
3
 = arccos 


!=−
3

Then the roots are
1
"# =  cos   + !
3
1
" =  cos  % + 2&' + !
3
1
" =  cos  % + 4&' + !
3

Example:

Consider the equation

  − 10  + 7 + 1 = 0

Then  = −26.3333,  = −49.7407,  = 5.9255,  = 0.2966 and ! = 3.3333

Yielding the roots: {9.2299, −0.1215,0.8917}.

1
Derivation of Formulas:

1. First, reduce the cubic equation to a “depressed cubic” equation.

- Let  = 0 + !, then the original equation becomes

  + 2! !  + ! + 
0  + 3! + 0  + 3!  + 0 + 1!  + 2=0




- By setting ! = −/(3
), the coefficient of 0  becomes zero, yielding
0  + 0 +  = 0 (1)
where  = (3
 −   )/(3
 ) and  = (2  − 9
 + 27
 )/(27
 ).

2. Next, consider the following trigonometric identity

cos(36) = cos(26) cos(6) − sin(26) sin(6)

= (cos(6) − sin(6) ) cos(6) − (2 sin(6) cos(6)) sin(6)
= cos(6) − 3 cos(6) sin(6)
= cos(6) − 3 cos(6) (1 − cos(6) )
cos(36) = 4 cos(6) − 3 cos(6)
Or
4 cos(6) − 3 cos(6) − cos(36) = 0 (2)

3. Transform the reduced cubic (1) to match the trigonometric identity (2).

Let 0 =  cos(6) and substitute to (1) to obtain

 cos(6) +  cos(6) +  = 0

Then multiply the equation by 4/ to match the first term in (2),

4 4
4 cos(6) + cos(6) +  = 0
 
To continue to match with (2), we need

4 
= −3 →  = 2−
 3

This yields,

3
4 cos(6) − 3 cos(6) − =0


2
 So comparing with identity (2), we conclude that

3
cos(36) =


Due to the periodicity of cosines, we have three distinct solutions for 6 if we let

3
 = arccos 


and set 36# = , 36 =  + 2& and 36 =  + 4&, or

  + 2&  + 4&
cos(6# ) = cos  ; cos(6 ) = cos  ; cos(6 ) = cos 
3 3 3

4. Transform back to the desired solution for .

 = 0 + ! =  cos(6) + !
That is, the roots are

"# =  cos(6# ) + ! =  cos  +!
3
 + 2&
" =  cos(6 ) + ! =  cos  +!
3
 + 4&
" =  cos(6 ) + ! =  cos  +!
3

Note: Since  = 2:−/3, we need  < 0 to have  be real. Further, with  real we
will also have  = arccos(3/()) be real.

3
If ; > <, only one Real Root:


̅ = 2
3

3
> = asinh 1 2
̅

 >
"# = −2 sinh 1 2
3 3