ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Erdős–Borwein constant

The Erdős-Borwein Constant is a fancy number that helps us understand some really big problems in math. It's kind of like a special secret code that mathematicians use to help them solve tricky equations.

Now, to understand this constant, we first have to know what a fraction is. You know how sometimes we divide a pizza into slices? Let's say we divide it into 8 slices. Each slice is one-eighth of the pizza, so that's a fraction. Fractions have two parts - the number on the top (called the numerator), and the number on the bottom (called the denominator).

Okay, now let's talk about pi. You've probably heard of pi before, right? It's that funny number that starts with 3.14 and goes on and on forever. Pi helps us figure out things like how big a circle is.

So, the Erdős-Borwein Constant is related to pi in a way. It's a fraction where the numerator and denominator keep getting bigger and bigger, but the fraction itself gets closer and closer to pi. It's kind of like if we had a pizza, and we kept slicing it into smaller and smaller pieces, but the total amount of pizza we had didn't change.

It was named after two really smart mathematicians, Paul Erdős and Peter Borwein, who discovered this special constant. They found out that it's a really special number because it helps us understand some really cool things in math, like prime numbers and how they are distributed.

So, in summary, the Erdős-Borwein Constant is a special fraction that gets really close to pi, and it helps mathematicians solve big problems related to prime numbers.