ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dynamical systems

Hello there! Do you like puzzles and patterns? Well, dynamical systems are like puzzles that tell us how things change over time. Imagine playing with blocks. You can stack them up in different ways, but if you push one, the whole stack will move. That's what happens in a dynamical system. It's like a bunch of things that interact and change each other.

For example, let's think about a clock. The hands move and point to different numbers as time passes. That's a dynamical system too! The position of one hand affects the position of the others. Everything is related in some way.

Dynamical systems can be found everywhere - in the weather, the stock market, and even in the behavior of animals. We can use math to understand how these systems work and how they change. We can look at equations that describe the way things move or at graphs that show us how different parts of the system interact.

So, the next time you see something changing over time, remember that it might be a dynamical system at work! And if you want to understand it better, you can use math to help solve the puzzle.