ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Herbrand's theorem

Herbrand's theorem is a very fancy way of talking about a math method that helps us figure out if something is true or not.

It's like trying to solve a big puzzle. Imagine you have a really complicated puzzle with lots of pieces and colors. You might not know how to solve it all at once, but you could start by putting together one small section at a time.

That's what Herbrand's theorem does. It helps us break down a complicated idea or statement into smaller parts that we can more easily understand and check if they are true or false.

This theorem is named after a man named Jacques Herbrand. He was a really smart math guy who came up with this idea back in the 1930s.

In math, there are things called "logical formulas". These are statements that are either true or false. Herbrand's theorem helps us look at these formulas in a new way.

It helps us take a logical formula and turn it into a bunch of little formulas that we can more easily check. These little formulas are made up of simpler ideas that are either true or false.

Think about it like breaking down a sentence into smaller words. If you can understand each word, you can understand the whole sentence. Same thing with Herbrand's theorem. If we can understand each little formula, we can understand the big formula and determine if it is true or false.

That's basically what Herbrand's theorem does. It helps us solve big puzzles by breaking them down into smaller pieces that we can more easily understand and solve.