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This has little to do with education systems, I was talking about objective difficulty. Try to tell any mathematician that the hardest part of math is rigorous
by oefrha 8y ago
This has little to do with education systems, I was talking about objective difficulty. Try to tell any mathematician that the hardest part of math is rigorous proofs; if they don’t laugh in your face, they are just being polite. One may think the transition is “hard”, until one actually gets into more advanced topics. As you said, it’s just unfamiliar to the uninitiated, at best.
Reading and presenting rigorous proofs in elementary number theory, Euclidean geometry, etc. is easy for gifted ten year olds and definitely manageable for a lot of fifteen year olds. You asked about material — it doesn’t actually matter, and I don’t recall specifics; any entry level treatment of elementary number theory should do (really beautiful subject with a very low barrier of entry). For kids who have eyes on IMO, it’s very common to be throwing around perfectly rigorous proofs at young ages.