A crate is packed completely with 1 cm cubes that together form one large cube with no gaps. If 4096 small cubes are used, how many lie along one edge?

Cube roots of negatives are real numbers (unlike square roots).

∛$(-n)$ = −∛$n$.

Example: ∛(−125). $125=5^3$. So ∛$(-125)=-5$.

This is one place where square root and cube root behave differently — square roots of negatives are NOT real (they're imaginary, a Class 11 topic). Cube roots of negatives are perfectly normal.