ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dynamical system (definition)

A dynamical system is like a little world that we can study. Think of it like you have a toy town, and you let cars and people move around in it. A dynamical system is just like that, except instead of toy cars, we have numbers that move around according to rules.

The rules for how the numbers move are called "dynamics". Just like cars in a town might follow traffic lights or road signs, the numbers in a dynamical system follow rules that tell them how to move and change with time.

We call it a "system" because it's made up of many different numbers that interact with each other. Sometimes, the interactions between the numbers can lead to some really interesting behavior, like patterns or chaos.

By studying dynamical systems, we can learn more about how things change over time. We can even use these systems to model and understand real-world phenomena, like the weather or the stock market.

So, to sum it up, a dynamical system is like a little world of numbers that moves according to rules, and we can use it to learn about how things change over time.