ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Gelfond's constant

Okay kiddo, have you heard of numbers like 1, 2 or 3? They are called natural numbers. But, there are other numbers too, like 1.5, 2.3456 or even 6.4534376. We call them real numbers.

Now, imagine if you wanted to find the value of a number like 2 raised to the power of 3. It would be 8, right? Similarly, if you wanted to find the value of 3 raised to the power of 4, it would be 81.

But what if we raise a real number to the power of another real number? That's where things get interesting.

There is a special real number called Gelfond's constant. It is a very unique number because it is a real number raised to the power of another real number, but the result is actually an irrational number. That means it doesn't have a simple pattern or repeating decimal.

Gelfond's constant is defined as the number e (you know, the mathematical constant that is used in so many equations) raised to the power of pi (that's the number that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter).

So, Gelfond's constant looks like this:

đťś‹^e (pi raised to the power of e)

It might look simple, but its value is actually very complicated and difficult to calculate. This is why it's a special number that mathematicians find fascinating.

In fact, Gelfond's constant is so unique that it has some interesting applications in areas of math such as number theory and the study of prime numbers.

So, that's Gelfond's constant for you, young one. It's a special number that is formed by raising one real number to the power of another real number, resulting in an irrational number that has some interesting properties in the world of mathematics.