ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Computational complexity of matrix multiplication

Matrix multiplication is when you have two groups of numbers, called matrices, and you multiply them together to get a new matrix. But this can be a really hard thing to do! It's like trying to solve a really, really big puzzle. The computational complexity of matrix multiplication is how difficult it is to do this puzzle.

When you have a matrix with a lot of numbers in it, it can take a long time to figure out what the answer is. That's because you have to do a lot of calculations to get there. The amount of time it takes to do these calculations depends on how big the matrices are.

Computational complexity is like how many steps it takes to get from the beginning of the puzzle to the end. If there are a lot of steps, it will be hard and take a lot of time. If there are not very many steps, it will be easy and fast.

For matrix multiplication, the computational complexity is usually measured by how many calculations you have to do to get the answer. There are different ways to do matrix multiplication, and each way takes a different amount of calculations.

Some methods are faster than others, but they might not work for every type of matrix. So, when you want to do matrix multiplication, you have to pick the right method for the matrix you are working with. This can be a hard thing to do, because you have to know a lot of math to figure it out!

Overall, matrix multiplication can be a really tricky thing to do, and the computational complexity (which is like how hard it is) depends on how big the matrices are and what method you use to multiply them together.