ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics

Imagine a big box full of tiny balls bouncing around in every direction. Now imagine that each ball has its own energy level - some are bouncing around really fast and with a lot of energy, while others are moving more slowly with less energy.

What the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics help us understand is how many balls there are at each energy level. We use these statistics to figure out the chances of a ball having a certain amount of energy.

This helps us predict all sorts of things, like how hot an object will get when we add heat to it, or how fast a molecule will move in a gas. Scientists can use this data to help design things like rocket engines or understand how gases behave in space.

In other words, the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics help us make sense of a bunch of tiny balls bouncing around in a box, by helping us understand how much energy they have and how likely they are to have that energy.