ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

(2+1)-dimensional topological gravity

Okay kiddo, let's talk about something called topological gravity. Imagine you are playing with a toy car on a flat piece of paper, but the only things you can do with it are move it forward or backward and turn it left or right. This is kind of like how topological gravity works.

Now let's imagine that the paper is actually a two-dimensional surface, like a piece of paper that you can draw on. When we say (2+1)-dimensional topological gravity, it means that we are talking about something happening in two dimensions, with time being the third dimension.

In the case of topological gravity, we are only concerned with certain properties of the space we are talking about, like how it is connected or how many holes it has. We're not too worried about things like distances or angles. This is where the "topological" part comes in – it's all about the shape and topology of the space.

So, to wrap it up, (2+1)-dimensional topological gravity is a way of thinking about the shape and properties of a two-dimensional space over time, focusing on its topological properties like connectedness and holes. It's kind of like playing with a toy car on a flat piece of paper, but thinking about the paper in a different, more abstract way.