ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Mutation (algebra)

Let's imagine you have a bunch of friends, and you want to know how tall they are. So, you measure their heights and write them down on a piece of paper.

Now, let's say you want to change one of the measurements. Maybe you made a mistake and wrote down the wrong height for one of your friends. What do you do?

Well, in algebra, when we want to change something, we use something called a mutation. It's like a way of modifying or altering a number or an expression.

To understand how it works, let's use an example. Let's say you have the number 5, and you want to add 3 to it. The mutation you will use is called addition. It means you are adding or combining numbers together.

So, when you mutate the number 5 by adding 3 to it, you get a new number: 8. This new number is the mutated version of the original number 5.

Now, mutations in algebra can do more than just adding numbers. You can also subtract numbers, multiply them, or even divide them.

Let's go back to the example of your friends' heights. Let's say you measured one of your friends, and their height was 10. But then, you realized that you made a mistake, and their actual height is 8. You want to correct this on your paper.

So, you will use a mutation called subtraction. This mutation means you are taking away or subtracting a number from another number. In this case, you want to subtract 2 from the height of your friend.

When you do this mutation, you get a new height: 8 - 2 = 6. Now, 6 is the mutated version of the original height of 10.

Mutations in algebra are like tools that allow you to change numbers or expressions to get new values. Just like how you can change a measurement to correct a mistake, in algebra, you can change numbers or expressions to get different results.