ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

GCD matrix

Have you ever played with LEGOs or blocks? Just like how you can stack them on top of each other to make a tower or a building, numbers can also be stacked on top of each other to make something called a matrix.

A gcd matrix is a special type of matrix where each number in the matrix represents the greatest common divisor (or GCD for short) between two different numbers. The GCD is the largest number that can divide both of the original numbers without leaving a remainder.

For example, if we have two numbers, 12 and 18, the largest number that can divide both of them evenly is 6. So 6 would be the GCD of 12 and 18.

To make a gcd matrix, we take a list of numbers and find the GCD between all the pairs of numbers. Then we write those GCDs in a matrix. Each row and column in the matrix represents a different number in the original list.

The neat thing about gcd matrices is that they can help us find patterns and relationships between the numbers in the list. We can also use them to solve problems involving factors and divisors.

So, if we want to visualize the GCD between the numbers 12, 18, and 24, we could make a gcd matrix like this:

| | 12 | 18 | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 12 | 6 | 12 |
| 18 | 6 | 18 | 6 |
| 24 | 12 | 6 | 24 |

As you can see, each number in the matrix tells us the GCD between the corresponding pair of numbers from the original list. In this case, each number shares a common factor of 6 or 12 with the other numbers.