ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Projection Principle

Okay kiddo, imagine you have a toy flashlight that you can turn on and point at different objects in your room. When you point the flashlight at your bed, you see the light shining on the bed and creating a bright spot. Now, let's say you move the flashlight to point towards your bookshelf. You'll see the light create a spot on the bookshelf instead.

This is kind of like what projection principle is all about: it's a way of looking at how things change when you shine a light or line up a camera or projector. We can think of the bed and bookshelf as different "spaces" that you're shining your toy flashlight onto.

In math and science, projection principle is often used to help us understand how to match up different kinds of shapes or spaces. It's like we're taking a picture of one space and trying to see how it lines up with another space.

For example, let's say you have a 3D model of a chair that you want to 3D print. You'll need to figure out how to "project" or flatten the 3D chair model down so that it can be made out of just 2D layers of plastic. The projection principle helps us figure out exactly how to do that, so the final printed chair looks just like the original 3D model.

Overall, projection principle is just a way of looking at how things change when you shine a light or take a picture, and it helps us understand how to match up different shapes or spaces.