Was Uncle Tom right that quadratic problems can't be solved with the rule of false position? (Q483357)

The rule of false position is probably the oldest method for solving linear problems. In the history of mathematics, one distinguishes between single false position and double false position. Single false position is a method for solving simple linear problems. This method was practiced within the two oldest mathematical cultures, i.e., Mesopotamia and Egypt (c. 1800 BCE). A first edition of an Egyptian mathematical text was published by Peet in 1923 and for the Old-Babylonian mathematics by Otto Neugebauer from the 1930's onwards. The method of double false position emerged much later and allows for solving more general linear problems. It turns up in Arabic mathematics from the ninth century under the term hisāb al-khāṭa'ayn or its Latinization elchataym in Fibonacci's \textit{Liber abbaci} (1202). Double false position was also used to solve linear problems in multiple unknowns. One can find many such solutions in Arabic and medieval European arithmetic. A systematic solution of systems of linear equations in multiple unknowns appears not until the sixteenth century. During that time some authors of arithmetic books began wondering if double false position could be applied to quadratic problems. Double false position emerged in a period when algebra was still at its infancy and the method was considered as an easy procedure to solve linear problems without the use of algebra. The method of double false position was extended to quadratic problems. The author discusses the approach of solving quadratic problems using double false position as treated by Elcius Edouardus Leon Mellema (1544--1622) and others which had to rely on knowledge of algebra. Remark: The identity of Uncle Tom from the title is revealed in an epilogue: it is D. T. Whiteside, editor of the mathematical papers of Isaac Newton.