Reduction operator

Okay kiddo, so you know how when you have a bunch of things, like some candy or toys, you might want to find out how many of them there are? You can count them one by one, but that might take a long time if you have a lot of things.

Well, sometimes grown-ups who work with computers have a lot of numbers they need to count or add up. So instead of counting them one by one, they use something called a reduction operator, which helps them do the counting or adding up way faster!

Basically, what a reduction operator does is take a bunch of numbers and combine them in some way to give you one final answer. It's like taking all your toys and putting them into one big pile so you can see how many you have all together.

There are different types of reduction operators that can do different things. For example, one kind called a sum operator adds up all the numbers in a list, while another one called a product operator multiplies all the numbers in a list. There's even one called a minimum operator that finds the smallest number in a list!

So basically, a reduction operator is just a fancy tool that helps grown-ups who work with computers quickly figure out how many things they have or how much they need to add up. Just like how you might quickly count your toys by putting them all in one pile!