TITLE: Solving the cubic by "radicals" in characteristics 2 and 3
QUESTION [25 upvotes]: This question has no justification other than a bit of fun.
We all know that the cubic is solvable by "radicals" ($\root2\of{}$ and $\root3\of{}$) in characteristics $\neq2,3$.  The formula was discovered by the Italians in the 16th century (see here).
In characteristic $2$, there should be a similar formula involving $\wp_2^{-1}(\ )$ and $\root3\of{}$, and in characteristic $3$ there should be a formula involving $\root2\of{}$ and $\wp_3^{-1}(\ )$.  
By $\wp_2^{-1}(a)$ and $\wp_3^{-1}(a)$ I mean a root of the polynomials $\wp_2(T)=T^2-T-a$ and $\wp_3(T)=T^3-T-a$ respectively, which give all cyclic extensions of degree $2$ and $3$ respectively.  
Has somebody worked out these formulæ ? 
Edit.  I have accepted one of the answers --- the choice was difficult --- but I'm still curious as to whether these formulæ can be found somewhere in the literature.

REPLY [16 votes]: I asked an undergraduate (Dubravka Bodiroga at Hood College) to work these results out last summer. Here is her cubic formula in characteristic 3 (paraphrasing from something she sent me):
Consder the polynomial
$$
x^3 - a_1 x^2 + a_2 x - a_3,
$$
where the coefficients belong to a commutative ring in which $3=0$. Assume moreover that $a_1$ is invertible. Let $b$ be a solution to
$$
b^2 = -\frac{a_2^3}{a_1^6}+\frac{a_2^2}{a_1^4}-\frac{a_3}{a_1^3},
$$
and let $\beta$ be a solution to $y^3 - y - b = 0$. Then
$$
x^3 - a_1 x^2 + a_2 x - a_3 = (x - (u\beta^2+v))(x-(u(\beta+1)^2+v))(x-(u(\beta+2)^2+v)),
$$
where $u=-a_1$ and $v=a_1 -\frac{a_2}{a_1}$.
If one inverts the procedure, letting
$$
x_i = u(\beta+i)^2 + v,
$$
then ([Parson: assuming I haven't scrambled her indices])
$$
b= \frac{(x_0 - x_1)(x_1 - x_2)(x_0 - x_2)}{(x_0+x_1+x_2)^3},
$$
and
$$
y= \frac{x_2 + 2x_1}{x_0+x_1+x_2} = -\frac{2\times x_2+1\times x_1+0\times x_0}{x_0+x_1+x_2}.
$$
I believe she also worked out the (simpler) details for the cubic formula in characteristic $2$, but I could not find them just now. She used a heuristic method of Euler and B\'ezout to find the formulas, an exposition of which one can find in Tignol's book on Galois theory. She then solved for the auxiliary quantities $b$ and $y$ in terms of the $x_i$ to see what Lagrange would have made of her solution procedure.