The Siebeck-Marden-Northshield theorem and the real roots of the symbolic cubic equation (Q2134906)

The author determines the location of the real roots of the universal monic cubic polynomial \(p(x)=x^3 + a x^2 + b x + c\) with real coefficients. The analysis is based on the Siebeck-Marden-Northshield triangle associated with \(p(x)\) if it has three real roots. It is an equilateral triangle in the complex plane with the following properties: (1) The orthogonal projection of its vertices to the real axis are precisely the roots of \(p(x)\). (2) The inscribed circle of this triangle projects to an interval the endpoints of which are the critical points of \(p(x)\).