ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

De Rham complex

De Rham complex is like a set of instructions that helps us understand and work with shapes like circles, squares, and triangles. Imagine you have a circle and you want to know things like how long the circle is or how much space is inside the circle. To figure this out, we need to use some math called calculus.

Calculus is like a super calculator that helps us solve tricky math problems. But, sometimes it can be hard to use calculus with shapes like circles, squares, and triangles because they have curves and corners. This is where de Rham complex can help us.

De Rham complex is a set of rules or instructions that tells us what to do with a shape so we can use calculus to solve problems with it. We start by breaking the shape into little pieces called infinitesimal or tiny parts. These parts are so small that they almost don't exist.

Then, we use a special formula that takes these tiny parts and turns them into numbers that we can understand. These numbers tell us important things about the shape, like how long the circle is or how much space is inside the triangle.

Once we have all these numbers, we can add them up and get a final answer. The de Rham complex makes it easier for us to use calculus with shapes that have curves and corners, so we can find out useful information about them.