ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Infinite-dimensional vector function

Okay kiddo, have you ever played with those blocks that come in different sizes and shapes? With them, you can make different shapes like squares, triangles, and rectangles.

Well, imagine that you have some blocks that come in different sizes and shapes, but there are so many of them that you can't count them all! And, you can mix and match them to make different shapes, like a cube or a pyramid, or even a shape that no one has ever seen before!

Now, imagine that each block represents a number. And, instead of making shapes, we put those numbers together in a line, like this:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ...

This is what we call an infinite-dimensional vector function. It's a fancy way of saying that we have so many numbers that we can't even count them all, and we can use them to do all kinds of things, like solving equations or calculating distances between objects.

So, just like with those blocks, we have an infinite number of "numbers" that we can mix and match to create different things. And, we can use those things to help us solve problems that are too difficult to solve with just a few numbers.

Pretty cool, huh?