Chapter 266: Chapter 115: Brother Qiao Gets Serious—Simply Terrifying!_2

If we had to verify for another year, indeed many people wouldn’t be satisfied.

Even if he were young, he might have made the same decision. It’s no one’s fault, especially not Pan Jingyuan’s. He wasn’t even the leader of the team.

So Yuan Zhengxin didn’t make a comment, but instead laughed and said, “Haha, then you can share Qiao Yu’s thoughts with the team, maybe start with a self-check. If you find any issues, you should thank Qiao Yu.”

Pan Jingyuan nodded seriously and replied, “Hmm, I’ll discuss this issue with my mentor later. By the way, what did you just say?”

Yuan Zhengxin replied, “I said Qiao Yu has been busy lately. Tomorrow, the first phase of this year’s IMO training camp is starting, and for at least the next nine days, he has to complete the training content at Yanbei University according to the regulations.”

Pan Jingyuan was stunned, and after a while, he asked in confusion, “Qiao Yu? He still needs to participate in the IMO? Why would he join the IMO? Can his brain handle it?”

As someone who has participated in the IMO and even won a championship, Pan Jingyuan naturally has the qualification to say this.

To put it bluntly, no matter how difficult IMO problems are, they still test the application ability of high school level elementary math knowledge. What can I say, the math encountered before university and the math encountered after are completely different disciplines.

The former’s knowledge is all concrete, with only basic concepts and basic formulas.

The latter’s knowledge starts to enter abstraction, starting from this time students might encounter math problems without a single number, only symbols and referenced letters.

The depth and abstraction of the knowledge determine the qualitative change in thinking mode and the nature of the discipline.

To put it bluntly, high school mathematics is at a stage where diligence can make up for lack; as long as you’re willing to work hard and practice problems diligently every day, even without talent, relying solely on drilled intuition, you can score well. The most would be some trouble with the final advanced questions.

But even at this stage, math can still filter out many people unsuitable for advanced research.

At the university stage, it’s even more different; merely solving problems cannot support learning this discipline well. It’s exaggerated to the extent that even with multiple explanations from teachers, textbook examples might be incomprehensible, and the reason is abstraction.

Mathematics doesn’t explore phenomena visible in reality, it can play freely within the limits allowed by the theoretical framework.

High dimensions in the physical world are hard to imagine, but in the mathematical world, they are common, even indispensable. Just like in N-dimensional Euclidean space, mathematicians can discuss spaces of any dimension and study their geometric properties.

Precisely what is hardest to imagine is what one has never seen, but some people have an extraordinary gift, with ample imagination to do these things beyond ordinary reach, like Poincaré’s exploration of high-dimensional manifolds, still nearly perfectly proven.

But why would such a person participate in the IMO? What significance does participating in the IMO have for him?

Yuan Zhengxin started to explain, “Hmm, I think so too, it indeed would cause trouble for many people. Especially when he attends the IMO, his article on the Ann. Math might already be published. This would even qualify him to sit on the judge panel.

But Qiao Yu says he promised his alma mater, so he must do it. I think we can’t dismiss a kid’s commitment to his alma mater; otherwise, how do we discuss concepts like trustworthiness and gratitude with him in the future?”

Pan Jingyuan opened his mouth but didn’t say anything.

This reason is indeed unbeatable.

Purely from a mathematical standpoint, Qiao Yu truly doesn’t need to participate in the IMO anymore.

A paper good enough for Ann. Math means that even being a team leader in this IMO is more than sufficient for him.

So many math professors at Huaqing can’t guarantee to have independent research results published in such top-level math journals every year. Not to mention that Qiao Yu’s result can be considered a significant achievement.

But if it’s to give back to his alma mater…

Yuan Zhengxin added, “Oh, you might not know, Qiao Yu didn’t go to a key high school, his alma mater hasn’t produced an IMO champion yet, actually hasn’t even sent a student to the national team. So if Qiao Yu can win an award at the IMO this time, it would be a breakthrough for his alma mater as well.”

Pan Jingyuan shook his head, smiled wryly, and said, “Even if he wants to participate in the IMO, doesn’t he need to attend the training camp? Why train? Just give him a direct exemption, wouldn’t that be fine?”

“Sigh,” Yuan Zhengxin sighed and said, “A kid like him is not easy to teach. Of course, that’s possible, but his nature is already quite capricious. If he gets used to such privilege, who knows what he might do in the future? Sixteen is when one’s worldview is forming, he needs to have a sense of rules.”

Pan Jingyuan suddenly realized, from discussing with Qiao Yu since yesterday afternoon until now, in his subconscious he probably already regarded Qiao Yu as someone of the same level as him, not realizing that this little guy is still in the stage where his character is being formed.

A strong plasticity means adults might have significant concerns when interfering with his thoughts.

The old man probably also fears that Qiao Yu lacks a sense of rules, which might result in heavier falls with greater heights in the future, right?

In this regard, he really has nothing to say, it just feels strange, just thinking about it is strange.

“Then…”

“Then could you please endure one more day, sorry to trouble you Little Pan, tomorrow he has to go to the training, and this is something he insisted on attending, so he will surely take it seriously.” The old man said with a smile, with a slight plea in his tone.