In mathematics, a third degree or cubic equation is called an equation that occurs or can be transformed into a polynomial form in which the maximum degree of the unknown is the third. The first general solution method for this class of equations is due to Scipione del Ferro; however, the name of Girolamo Cardano is normally associated with the solution formula who, in 1545, completed a series of improvements to the method due to various authors of the Italian school of algebra. Cardano, Tartaglia and other Italian Renaissance algebrists published their own methods for solving 3rd degree equations. Some time later François Viète, following the introduction of the literal coefficients, published in the Isagoge in artem analyticam a very linear method, which involves the resolution of a complete third degree equation by reducing it, through a multiple substitution of the variables, to a particular quadratic equation.
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