Which limitation constrained medieval Islamic engineers when solving cubic equations geometrically using conic sections?

💡 Explanation

When solving cubic equations geometrically, Islamic engineers could only represent positive magnitudes, as lengths and areas were fundamentally positive. Thus, the inability to represent negative roots was a key limitation because geometric algebra treated all quantities geometrically, rather than accepting symbolic manipulation of negative numbers. Therefore the absence solutions in the negative domain results, rather than conic precision, visualization, or manipulation, which were addressed though other means.

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