What does the word seqt refer to?

Answer 1

Seqt is what the ancient Egyptians used in place of the modern "slope". Although we find the ratio of rise to run (how much a slope rises over a unit length), the Egyptians did the opposite: they calculated run over rise: how much distance the slope needs to rise a unit height. This would mean that the seqt is simply the reciprocal of the slope, except that things were a bit more complicated: the Egyptians measured height in "cubits" and length in "palms". There are 7 palms in a cubit, which makes the seqt 7 times what it would be otherwise. This means that a simple formula for relating seqt and slope is Seqt=7/Slope. To find a seqt, we don't actually need to use the Egyptian units (cubits and palms): only their ratio, 7 was important. The seqt can also be used to measure an angle: it is 7 times the cotangent. For angles between 0 and 180 degrees, this is enough information to find the angle, given the seqt.