ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Predicate (mathematical logic)

In math, we have rules for how to solve problems and figure things out. One of the things we can figure out is whether a statement is true or false. That statement is called a proposition.

A predicate is a special type of proposition that has a variable in it. A variable is something that can have different values. For example, in the statement "x is greater than 5," x is the variable because its value can change.

A predicate doesn't become "true" or "false" until you know what the variable is. So if we say "x is greater than 5" but we don't know what x is, we can't say for sure whether it's true or false. But if we say "x is greater than 5" and we know that x is actually 6, then we can say that the predicate is true.

Predicates are useful because they allow us to describe things that are more complex than simple statements like "2 + 2 = 4." They also help us solve problems that involve multiple conditions, like "if x is greater than 5 and y is less than 10, then..."

So in summary, a predicate is a statement that has a variable in it that can have different values. Only when we know what value the variable has can we determine whether the predicate is true or false.