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Comment by mewpmewp2 | Hacker News Reader

I'm going to be this guy, but isn't it just Pythagoras theorem with a slight twist which is taught at 11 - 14 year old levels?

It only sounds complicated because of the words used like "complex", "imaginary", "real".

So if you studied Pythagoras at school and someone (a YouTube video) says you just have to do Pythagoras on the i multiplier and the other number, it would be fairly easy if you understand Pythagoras?

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I remember some time ago watching an episode of the Joe Rogan show(it had some comedic value back then) He and his friends were talking about the MIT admittance exam, pointing out the square root in the maths problem as an indication that this math problem was really hard. And I thought to myself "that's what primary school children learn around here at age 12 in my literally 3rd world country".

Pythagoras was around the same time. I'd like to warn people that not understanding these basic math concepts makes you appear uneducated to many people internationally.

I put "absolute value of complex numbers" in YouTube, and the first video within 30 seconds says it's root of a squared + b squared. So all the kid has to know is to multiply a with itself, and b with itself and add them together.

I'm in the U.S., and we learned those things around that age too, maybe a little older.

That's interesting. Was that in a public school? Would you be willing to share your state and if you believe your experience represents a national average or is above/below the national average in regards to "at what age do children learn about square root"?

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