ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Method of Four Russians

The Method of Four Russians is like having four friends who speak a language you don't understand, but by working together they can help you understand the language.

Imagine you have a big math problem to solve, but it takes a lot of time and effort to solve it by yourself. However, you can break down the problem into smaller parts and use the Method of Four Russians to speed up the process.

First, you split the problem into smaller sub-problems. Each sub-problem is then split into smaller sub-problems again, until you have a series of tiny problems that can be solved easily.

Next, you get your four friends, who are experts in solving these tiny problems. You give each friend a list of pre-calculated answers that correspond with the tiny problems.

Now, each friend takes one of the sub-problems and looks up the answer in their list. By using these pre-calculated answers, they don't have to waste time solving the tiny problems from scratch.

Once all the sub-problems have been solved, the answers are combined to solve the larger problem.

The Method of Four Russians is like having a team of experts who work together to solve a complex problem quickly and efficiently. It saves time and effort by breaking the problem down into smaller manageable parts and using pre-calculated answers to solve them.