ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Pythagorean prime

Okay, so imagine you have a big square with sides that are both the same length. Now, imagine you draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner, like you're drawing an "X" through the square.

Now, let's say that the length of each side of the square is a whole number (like 1, 2, 3, etc.). In this situation, we say that the length of the diagonal line is a *square root* of 2 (which is a really fancy way of saying it's a little bit more than 1.4).

Here's where it gets interesting: if you use *two whole numbers* for the sides of the square, like 3 and 4, then the length of the diagonal line (or the square root of 2) will be a special kind of number called an "irrational number." This means that it goes on forever and never ends, and there's no pattern to the numbers that come after the decimal point.

Okay, now let's talk about Pythagorean Primes. Remember how we just talked about drawing an "X" through the square? Well, there's a famous math theorem called the Pythagorean Theorem that tells us how to figure out the length of that diagonal line (or square root of 2). The formula goes like this:

a2 + b2 = c2

In this formula, "a" and "b" are the lengths of the sides of the square, and "c" is the length of the diagonal line (or square root of 2). So, for example, if "a" = 3 and "b" = 4, we can plug those numbers into the formula like this:

32 + 42 = c2

9 + 16 = c2

25 = c2

c = 5

So, in this case, the square root of 2 (or the length of the diagonal line) is exactly 5.

Now, here's where the Pythagorean Prime part comes in: if the number "c" (or the square root of 2) is also a *prime number,* then we call it a Pythagorean Prime. These are very rare and special numbers, and they have been studied by mathematicians for a long time.

In summary, Pythagorean Primes are special prime numbers that come from a famous math formula called the Pythagorean Theorem, which helps us figure out the length of the diagonal line in a square. These numbers are very rare and important in mathematics!