ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Endomorphism ring

An endomorphism ring is like a special club only for math functions.

Let's say you have a bunch of blocks, and you want to change their color. You create a function that takes each block as input and returns a block of the same color, except now it's the color you want. This is an endomorphism - a function that takes an object and returns another object of the same type.

Now, if you have lots of blocks in lots of different colors, you can create lots of different endomorphisms to change them into any other color you want. These endomorphisms can be combined or composed to get more complicated changes.

The endomorphism ring is like a big circle where all your endomorphisms can hang out together. This ring has two important rules:

1. You can add and subtract endomorphisms just like you add and subtract numbers.

2. You can multiply endomorphisms just like you multiply numbers, but the order of multiplication matters.

In this club, you can study your endomorphisms and figure out interesting things about them. Maybe you'll even discover that two endomorphisms are essentially the same, or that one endomorphism can be factored into smaller pieces.

Overall, the endomorphism ring is a powerful tool for understanding structures and transformations in math.