Reexamination of the Susa mathematical text No. 12: A system of quartic equations (Q2741015)

The author gives a new interpretation of a Susa mathematical text published by Bruins and Rutten. He posits that the Accadic word manātum, plural of manītum ``\(x\)'', means ``ratio'' if used with two data. He then reads the tablet as giving two equations in two unknowns which are really quartic; they appear as quadratic in \(x,y\) and linear in \(x/y\), \(y/x\). By algebraic manipulation, the equations are reduced to standard Babylonian quadratic form \(XY=a\), \(X+Y=b\).