ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Language of mathematics

Do you know that when you go to a different country, people speak a different language? It could be French, Spanish, German or any other language. Just like that, Mathematics is also a language. It's a way of talking or communicating about numbers, shapes, and patterns.

In Maths or the language of Mathematics, we use numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4 or any other number to count things. For example, if you have one apple, it's represented by the number 1. If you have two apples, you use the number 2, and so on. We can also use numbers to add, subtract, multiply or divide. For instance, if you have three apples and your friend has two, you can add them together, which will give you a total of five apples.

In Maths, we also have different symbols, which can represent different things. For example, "+" symbol means to add, "-" symbol means to subtract, "x" means to multiply and "/" means to divide.

Maths is also used to talk about shapes, like a square, circle, triangle, rectangle or any other shape you can think of. It's like a secret code that tells us what the shapes look like, how big they are, and how they relate to each other.

So, to sum it up, just as people use different languages to communicate with each other, we use the language of Mathematics to talk about numbers, shapes, and patterns. It helps us understand and make sense of the world around us. And the best part is, once you learn this language, you can speak it with anyone, no matter where they come from!