ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Blaschke selection theorem

Okay kiddo, so you know how we have shapes like circles, squares, and triangles right? Well, mathematicians like to study these shapes and how we can slice them up into smaller pieces. And one way they do this is by using something called complex analysis, which is like a special kind of math that looks at numbers with an imaginary part.

Now, when we look at a shape, we can also think of it as a function. So, if we take a circle, for example, we can make a function that maps every point on the circle to a complex number. This is where the Blaschke selection theorem comes in. It tells us that we can choose a special set of points on the circle (called the zeros) and use them to uniquely determine the function.

So, let's say we have a circle and we know some points on it where the function equals zero. The theorem says that we can find a way to make the function so that it equals zero at those points and nowhere else on the circle. This is really helpful because it makes it easier for us to analyze the shape and understand how it behaves.

Overall, the Blaschke selection theorem is just a fancy way of saying that we can use some special points to completely describe a shape or function. Cool, huh?