Question 425389
There is a lot of brute-forcing involved in this problem. It is quite difficult to factor a cubic but you can use the rational root test to find a rational root and reduce it to a quadratic equation. There is also a cubic formula, but I doubt anyone can memorize it.


For example, suppose you find x=2 using the rational root test. Then you can divide {{{(x^3 - 7x^2 - 14x + 48)/(x-2)}}} using either long or synthetic division. You will obtain a quadratic equation with no remainder, then find that the roots of that equation are -3 and 8.