ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Gaussian polar coordinates

Imagine you are trying to find a spot on a treasure map that is marked with an X. The map doesn't give you the exact location, but it gives you some clues. One of the clues is that the spot is 2 miles east and 3 miles north of a big rock. Another clue is that the spot is 1 mile away and 45 degrees to the northeast of a big tree.

People use a similar system to describe points on a graph. Instead of giving clues about rocks and trees, they use numbers to describe how far a point is from the center of the graph and what angle it makes with a certain line. The numbers that describe the point are called polar coordinates.

Gaussian polar coordinates are just a special way of describing points on a graph. They're named after a guy named Carl Friedrich Gauss who figured out a lot of cool math stuff in the 1800s. In Gaussian polar coordinates, you start by thinking about how far a point is from the center of a graph (just like in regular polar coordinates). But then you use a special formula that takes into account how spread out the points are on the graph.

It's a little bit like if you were trying to find the X on your treasure map, but the clues about the rocks and trees were really vague because lots of people had walked around there and messed things up. You'd have to figure out a way to adjust the clues to account for all the people walking around. Gaussian polar coordinates do the same thing for graphs. They take into account how the points on the graph are spread out and adjust the formula for how you describe the points.

So, in summary, Gaussian polar coordinates are a way of describing points on a graph that takes into account how spread out the points are. It's like adjusting the clues on a treasure map to account for people walking around and messing things up.