We know r+r1=3. Cubing this gives r3+3r+r3+r31=33. But 3r+r3=3(r+r1)=33, so subtracting this from the first equation gives r3+r31=0 (C). (Actually, r+r1 could have been equal to −3 instead of 3, but this would have led to the same answer. Also, this answer implies that r6=−1, which means that r is a complex number.)
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