ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Antisymmetry

Antisymmetry is like sharing toys with your friend. Let's say you have a toy truck and your friend has a toy car. You both want to play with both toys, but you don't want to fight over them. So you decide to take turns playing with each other's toy.

In mathematics, antisymmetry is when two things have a relationship where if one is related to the other, then the other cannot be related to the first thing in the same way. For example, let's say we have two numbers, 5 and 7. We say that 5 is smaller than 7 because 5 comes before 7 on a number line. But we can't say that 7 is smaller than 5 because it isn't true. This is an example of antisymmetry because if "A" has a relationship with "B," then "B" cannot have the same relationship with "A."

Another example of antisymmetry is in gender relationships. Let's say we have a guy named John and a girl named Jane. We can say that John is Jane's brother, but we can't say that Jane is John's brother because she's a girl. This is an example of antisymmetry because the relationship of "brother" cannot be the same for both John and Jane.

So, antisymmetry is when two things have a relationship where the relationship cannot be reversed or mirrored in the same way. Just like sharing toys, we have to take turns and can't have the same thing at the same time.