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I'm reeeeeally confused with what sort of maths major contains a few proofs courses. Mathematics is proofs upon proofs. If mathematical proofs don't change the

• theoh 9y ago
  Yes, as has been discussed here before, thinking in terms of proofs is a huge part of mathematical maturity, as required by university undergraduate mathematics. See "The Book of Proof" etc.
• thaumasiotes 9y ago
  You're assuming without evidence that I began by not thinking of math in terms of proofs. This is not true; I took pains to give proofs of the basic properties of exponents when asked to help my sister with her algebra. > I'm reeeeeally confused with what sort of maths major contains a few proofs courses. I was referring to courses for which the goal was "we'll teach you how to do proofs", not courses which required proofs.
  • aidos 9y ago
    Fair enough, I should have read your comment more charitably — as perhaps you could have of your parent's. They were being somewhat hyperbolic but the sentiment was more along the lines of "Euclid is approachable for anyone, not just maths people" than "if you haven't read Euclid, you won't understand proofs." Like your parent, I also took a Euclidean geometry course during undergrad and still cite it as one of my favourites. There's something beautiful about striping mathematics back its foundations and building it back up with just a ruler and a compass.