The interest in the question may suggest some knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, though the papyrus only shows a straightforward solution to a single second degree equation in one unknown. In modern terms, the simultaneous equations  and  reduce to the single equation in y: , giving the solution y = 8 and x = 6.
The interest in this question may suggest some knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, although the papyrus only presents a straightforward solution for a single second-degree equation with one unknown variable. In modern terms, the simultaneous equations  reduce to a single equation in y: , giving the solution y = 8 and x = 6.