A poet-mathematician solved cubic equations centuries before algebra could
Long before anyone had a general algebraic formula for cubic equations, how could you find a real, measurable solution to one at all?
Reveal the answer
Omar Khayyam classified cubic equations into types and solved each geometrically, by carefully constructing intersecting conic sections -- parabolas, circles, hyperbolas -- so their intersection points gave the roots. His 'Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra' (c. 1070) predates a full algebraic solution to the cubic by nearly 500 years.
— Omar Khayyam, Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra — c. 1070 CE