ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Nicolas Bourbaki

Nicolas Bourbaki is not a person, but rather a collective pseudonym used by a group of mathematicians. Imagine a group of friends who all love math and studying it together. They wanted to come up with a cool name to use when they published their work, to make it seem like they were one big super smart team. They decided on the name Nicolas Bourbaki and it stuck!

Together, the group wrote many books and papers on mathematics, covering a wide range of topics including set theory, topology, algebra, and calculus. They wanted to create a comprehensive and coherent structure for all of mathematics, so they worked really hard to make their writing clear and easy to understand.

The Nicolas Bourbaki group has had a big impact on modern mathematics. Their work has been used to teach many people about math, and they helped to create a universal language for mathematicians to use when they want to talk about complex ideas.

So in summation, Nicolas Bourbaki is a fancy name for a bunch of mathematicians who worked together to make math easier to understand and to create a universal language for mathematicians.