How to prove that $\sqrt[3] 2 + \sqrt[3] 4$ is irrational? So while doing all sorts of proving and disproving statements regarding irrational numbers, I ran into this one and it quite stumped me:
Prove that $\sqrt[3]{2} + \sqrt[3]{4}$ is irrational.
I tried all the usual suspects like playing with $\sqrt[3]{2} + \sqrt[3]{4} = \frac{a}{b}$ for $a,b\in \mathbb{Z}$ , but got nowhere.
I also figured maybe I should play with it this way:
$2^\frac{1}{3} + 4^\frac{1}{3}=2^\frac{1}{3} + (2^2)^\frac{1}{3}=2^\frac{1}{3} + 2^\frac{2}{3}=2^\frac{1}{3} + 2^\frac{1}{3}\times 2^\frac{1}{3}=2^\frac{1}{3}(1+2^\frac{1}{3})$
But there I got stumped again, because while $1+2^\frac{1}{3}$ is irrational, nothing promises me that $2^\frac{1}{3} \times (1+2^\frac{1}{3})$ is irrational, and I feel like trying to go further down this road is moot.
So what am I missing (other than sleep and food)? What route should I take to 
prove this?
Thanks in advance!

An easy approach: If $p=\sqrt[3]{2}+\sqrt[3]{4}$ is rational:
$$p^2 = \sqrt[3]{4}+2\cdot 2+ 2\sqrt[3]{2} = p+4+\sqrt[3]{2}.$$
So $\sqrt[3]{2}=p^2-p-4$ would be rational.

An alternative, more general approach.
Claim: If $a,b$ are integers that are not perfect cubes, and $a\neq -b$, then $\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]b$ is irrational.
Proof:
Assume $\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]{b}$ is rational. Cube it and get:
$$(\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]{b})^3 = a+ 3\sqrt[3]{ab}(\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]{b}) + b$$
Now, since $a,b$ are rational and $\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]{b}$ is non-zero and rational, this means that $\sqrt[3]{ab}$ is rational.
Letting $p=\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]{b}$ and $q=\sqrt[3]{ab}$, this means that 
$$(x-\sqrt[3]{a})(x-\sqrt[3]{b}) = x^2-px+q$$ is a rational polynomial. It shares at least one root with $x^3-b$, But the GCD of these two polynomials has to be a rational polynomial, so the GCD cannot be linear (since it would be $x-\sqrt[3]b$, which is not a rational polynomial.)
This means that $x^2-px+q$ has to divide $x^3-b$. That means that $\sqrt[3]{a}$ is a root of $x^3-b$, which means that $a=b$. But there are no repeated roots of $x^3-b$, which yields a contradiction.
Corollary:  If $a,b$ are rationals such that $a\neq -b$ and $\sqrt[3]{a}$ and $\sqrt[3]{b}$ are irrational, then $\sqrt[3]{a}+\sqrt[3]{b}$ is irrational.
Proof: Rationalize the denominators and revert to the above theorem for integers.
