Homework: Sum of the cubed roots of polynomial Given $7X^4-14X^3-7X+2 = f\in R[X]$, find the sum of the cubed roots.
Let $x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4\in R$ be the roots. Then the polynomial $X^4-2X^3-X+ 2/7$ would have the same roots. If we write the polynomial as $X^4 + a_1X^3 + a_2X^2 +a_3X + a_4$ then per Viete's theorem:
$a_k = (-1)^k\sigma _k(x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4), k\in \{1,2,3,4\}$, where $\sigma _k$ is the $k$-th elementary symmetrical polynomial. Therefore:  
$x_1+x_2+x_3+x_4 = 2$
$x_1x_2+x_1x_3+x_1x_4+x_2x_3+x_2x_4+x_3x_4 = 0\ (*)$
$x_1x_2x_3 +x_1x_2x_4+x_1x_3x_4+x_2x_3x_4 = 1$
$x_1x_2x_3x_4 = 2/7$  
Now how to determine the sum of the cubed roots?
$2^3 = 8= (x_1+x_2+x_3+x_4)(x_1+x_2+x_3+x_4)^2 = (x_1+x_2+x_3+x_4)(x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2+x_4^2 + 2(*))$  
Here's where things go out of hand:
$(x_1+x_2+x_3+x_4)(x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2+x_4^2) = (x_1^3 + x_2^3 + x_3^3+x_4^3) + x_1^2(x_2+x_3+x_4)+x_2^2(x_1+x_3+x_4)+x_3^2(x_1+x_2+x_4)+x_4^2(x_1+x_2+x_3) = 8$
What should I do here?

Hint: as we can have only cubic terms in the symmetric polynomial sums, the only terms which can be used are of form $(\sum x)^3, \sum x \sum xy$ and $\sum xyz$.  Then it is a matter of testing $3$ coefficients...
$$\sum_{cyc} x_1^3 = \left(\sum_{cyc} x_1 \right)^3-3\left(\sum_{cyc} x_1 \right)\left(\sum_{cyc} x_1 x_2 \right)+3\sum_{cyc} x_1x_2x_3$$
