Simplification of expressions containing radicals As an example, consider the polynomial $f(x) = x^3 + x - 2 = (x - 1)(x^2 + x + 2)$ which clearly has a root $x = 1$.
But we can also find the roots using Cardano's method, which leads to
$$x = \sqrt[3]{\sqrt{28/27} + 1} - \sqrt[3]{\sqrt{28/27} - 1}$$
and two other roots.
It's easy to check numerically that this expression is really equal to $1$, but is there a way to derive it algebraically which isn't equivalent to showing that this expression satisfies $f(x) = 0$?

Yes.  The first thing to try is to guess that $\sqrt[3]{ \left( \sqrt{ \frac{28}{27} } \pm 1 \right) } = \pm \frac{1}{2} + \sqrt{a}$ for some $a$.  Cubing both sides then gives
$$\frac{2}{9} \sqrt{21} \pm 1 = \pm \frac{1}{8} + \frac{3}{4} \sqrt{a} \pm \frac{3}{2} a + a \sqrt{a}.$$
Setting $1 = \frac{1}{8} + \frac{3a}{2}$ gives $a = \frac{7}{12}$, and we can verify that
$$\frac{3}{4} \sqrt{a} + a \sqrt{a} = \frac{1}{8} \sqrt{21} + \frac{7}{72} \sqrt{21} = \frac{2}{9} \sqrt{21}$$
as desired.  If this method doesn't work then the problem becomes harder.
