Influence diagram

An influence diagram is like a picture that shows how different things can affect each other. Imagine you're playing with a toy car, and you want to make it go faster. You might think, "if I push the car harder, it will go faster." But then you might realize that the type of surface the car is on could also affect its speed. And if the car has bigger wheels, it might go faster too.

An influence diagram helps you keep track of all these different factors and how they relate to each other. It's like a map of how one thing can influence another thing. In our toy car example, we could draw a box for "pushing the car," and then draw arrows to other boxes for "surface type" and "wheel size." We could also draw an arrow from "wheel size" to "car speed" to show that bigger wheels can make the car go faster.

Now, imagine we wanted to make the toy car stop. We could draw another box for "braking" and connect it to "car speed" with an arrow pointing in the opposite direction. This shows that braking can slow down the car, which is the opposite effect of making it go faster.

With an influence diagram, we can see how different factors are connected and figure out what might happen if we change one thing or another. It's like a tool that helps us understand how the world around us works.