Infimum and supremum

Imagine you have a big pile of candy. You want to find the smallest piece of candy in the pile. That smallest piece is called the infimum of the pile. Now, imagine you want to find the biggest piece of candy in the pile. That biggest piece is called the supremum of the pile.

But wait, there's more to it than that. What if some of the candies are covered in chocolate, while others have no chocolate? If you only look at the chocolate-free candies, then the smallest one among them is called the infimum of the set of chocolate-free candies. Similarly, the biggest chocolate-covered candy in the pile is called the supremum of the chocolates.

In math, infimum and supremum are like saying the smallest and the biggest things in a group of numbers or values. But it's not always as simple as looking at the whole group. Sometimes, you need to look at only part of the group to find the infimum or supremum of that subset.