ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Airy zeta function

So let’s imagine you have a box of blocks and you want to build a tower. You can stack them on top of each other to make the tower taller and taller. But what happens if the tower gets really, really tall?

Well, it might start to wobble and eventually it will fall over. That’s because the blocks are not perfectly stable and every time you add a new one, it can cause the tower to shake even more.

Now, imagine you have a similar problem with a string. You tie the ends of the string to two posts and you start to pluck them like you would with a guitar. As you add more and more energy to the string, it will start to vibrate more and more. But eventually, if you add too much energy, it will start to break apart.

This is where the Airy zeta function comes in. It helps us understand how these vibrating blocks or strings behave as they get bigger and bigger. The function was first discovered by Sir George Airy, who was studying the way light waves bend as they pass through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Basically, the Airy zeta function tells us how much energy is required to cause something to vibrate at a certain frequency. For example, if you pluck a guitar string, the Airy zeta function can tell you how much force is needed to make the string vibrate at a particular note.

Now, this might all seem pretty complicated, but the important thing to remember is that the Airy zeta function helps us understand how things vibrate and move in a way that is consistent and predictable. And that’s important because it helps us design things like buildings, bridges, and musical instruments that can withstand vibrations and movements without breaking apart.