ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Binary cutter location

A binary cutter location is like playing a guessing game with a special rule: You can only use "yes" or "no" answers to guess where something is. Think of it like a treasure hunt where you have to ask questions to figure out where the treasure is hidden.

In this game, we have a big piece of material, like a sheet of paper or a board, that we want to cut into smaller pieces. We have a machine called a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) that can cut the material for us, but first we need to tell it where to cut.

The CNC machine works by moving a special cutting tool called a router along a path that we program into its computer. So if we tell it to cut a straight line from one end of the material to the other, the CNC machine will move the router along that line and cut the material into two pieces.

The challenge is to decide where along that line to make the cut. That's where the binary cutter location comes in.

We start by cutting the material in half, along its longest dimension, let’s say it is a board. This gives us two smaller pieces that are roughly the same size. Then we take one of those pieces and cut it in half again, perpendicular to the first cut. We keep doing this until we have a bunch of smaller pieces that are all roughly the same size.

Now we have a bunch of smaller pieces, each of which can be cut along a single line to make even smaller pieces. But where do we make that line? That's where the binary cutter location comes in.

We ask a series of yes/no questions to locate the line where we want to make the cut. For example, we might ask "Is the line closer to the left side of the piece or the right side?" and "Is the line closer to the top of the piece or the bottom?" Each question narrows down the possible locations for the cut until we know exactly where to make it.

Once we've located the line, we program the CNC machine to move the router along that path and make the cut. Then we repeat the process with the remaining pieces until we have all the smaller pieces we need.

Overall, the binary cutter location is a way of breaking down a large piece of material into smaller pieces by asking a series of questions that help us locate the best place to make a cut. This ensures that we use the material efficiently and produce smaller pieces that are as close to the same size as possible.