ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Path integral formulation

Imagine you are going on a walk, and you want to know how many different paths you can take to get to your destination. You could take a straight path, or you could zigzag or take some detours. The path integral formulation helps us understand all of the different possible paths we could take to get to our destination.

The path integral formulation is a way of describing how things move through time and space, like particles moving through empty space or waves moving through water. It is based on the idea that everything that happens in the universe is the result of many possible paths, and that every possible path has some probability of happening.

To understand this idea, let's imagine that we have a particle that we want to study. We want to know where it will be at a certain time in the future, but we don't know exactly how it will get there. Instead, we can imagine that the particle takes every possible path to get to its destination.

Each of these paths has a certain probability of happening, and we can add up all of these probabilities to find the probability of the particle ending up in a specific place at a specific time. This is like taking a bunch of different routes to get to your destination and calculating the likelihood of each one.

The path integral formulation is used in many fields of physics, including quantum mechanics and relativity. It helps us understand how particles move and interact with each other, and it is an essential tool for scientists and researchers who are trying to describe the world around us.

Overall, the path integral formulation is a way of exploring all of the different possibilities that exist in the universe. It shows us that there are many different paths we can take to get to where we want to go, and that each path has a unique probability of happening. By understanding the path integral, we can better understand the complex and fascinating world we live in.