show/hide this revision's text 3 spelling correction for resp.

Problem: The partition function $p(n)$ is even (reps. resp. odd) half of the time.

Of course you need to explain to a general audience what the partition function is, but that's not hard, my daughter in K1 got as an assignment to compute $p(n)$ for $n$ up to 4. You also need to explain "half of the time", which means that the number of $n < x$ such that $p(n)$ is even, divided by $x$, has limit 1/2 when $x$ goes to infinity, so you need the notion of limit of a sequence, which is in K12, isn't it ?

The problem is certainly famous among specialists, but not too famous. I don't think there are books on it, for instance. It is old (formulated as a conjecture during the 50th), with an history going back to Ramanajunan. And I like it very much.
show/hide this revision's text 2 added 27 characters in body

Problem: The partition function $p(n)$ is even (reps. odd) half of the time.

Of course you need to explain to a general audience what the partition function is, but that's not hard, my daughter in K1 got as an assignment to compute p(n) $p(n)$ for n $n$ up to 4. You also need to explain "half of the time", which means that the number of $n < x x$ such that p(n) $p(n)$ is even, divided by $x$, has limit 1/2 when n $x$ goes to infinity, so you need the notion of limit of a sequence, which is in K12, isn't it ?

The problem is certainly famous among specialists, but not too famous. I don't think there are books on it, for instance. It is old (formulated as a conjecture during the 50th), with an history going back to Ramanajunan. And I like it very much.
show/hide this revision's text 1 [made Community Wiki]

Problem: The partition function $p(n)$ is even (reps. odd) half of the time.

Of course you need to explain to a general audience what the partition function is, but that's not hard, my daughter in K1 got as an assignment to compute p(n) for n up to 4. You also need to explain "half of the time", which means that the number of n < x such that p(n) is even has limit 1/2 when n goes to infinity, so you need the notion of limit of a sequence, which is in K12, isn't it ?

The problem is certainly famous among specialists, but not too famous. I don't think there are books on it, for instance. It is old (formulated as a conjecture during the 50th), with an history going back to Ramanajunan. And I like it very much.