That cryptic constant is actually a composite of three bitfields, and twiddling it requires some understanding of what those fields are. It would be clearer, but a few more operations, to do that line as a pair of bitfield extract/inserts. But we're saving divides in the subsequent iterations, so the extra 1-cycle operations are a wash.
== "nearest perfect square" in Bakhshali method? ==
The example in the Bakhshali method has me confused. The initial guess is said to be "''x''<sub>0</sub><sup>2</sup> be the initial approximation to ''S''." The example uses <math>S = 125348</math>, and chooses <math> x_0 = 600 </math>. How can that be? <math>600^2 = 360000</math> and there are many perfect squares closer to ''S'', like 400 or 350.
How is the initial guess ''really'' meant to be chosen? Unfortunately, the material here (in particular, this example) isn't well-referenced enough to explain how 600 meets the criteria given in the article. -- [[User:Mikeblas|Mikeblas]] ([[User talk:Mikeblas|talk]]) 21:06, 26 February 2020 (UTC)
:The method does not require the initial guess to be the closest perfect square. This was only used to obtain a bound on the error. The 600 value is obtained in the above section on scalar estimates and was used as the initial guess in the previous example. --[[User:Wcherowi|Bill Cherowitzo ]] ([[User talk:Wcherowi|talk]]) 23:27, 26 February 2020 (UTC)
The article referenced [https://simplycurious.blog/2018/06/05/bucking-down-to-the-bakhshali-manuscript/ here] makes clear, by numerical example, that the initial guess does not need to be near the closest perfect square. <!-- Template:Unsigned --><span class="autosigned" style="font-size:85%;">— Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Sramakrishna123|Sramakrishna123]] ([[User talk:Sramakrishna123#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Sramakrishna123|contribs]]) 22:10, 19 December 2020 (UTC)</span> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->
