ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Rees algebra

Okay kiddo, let me tell you about something called Reese Algebra. Reese Algebra is a type of math that helps us solve really complicated problems using letters and symbols instead of numbers.

Imagine you have a box with some apples in it. Let's call the number of apples "a". Now suppose you have another box with some oranges, and we'll call the number of oranges "b".

We can write down some equations using these letters to help us solve problems. For example, if we know that we have a total of 10 fruit, we can write the equation:

a + b = 10

This means that the total number of apples plus the total number of oranges is equal to 10.

But what if we know that we have twice as many apples as oranges? We can write another equation:

a = 2b

This means that the number of apples is equal to 2 times the number of oranges.

Now we can use these equations to solve some fun problems. For example, if we know we have a total of 20 fruit, we can substitute the first equation into the second equation and get:

(10 - b) = 2b

Solving for b, we find that b = 3.3333 (which doesn't make sense, since you can't have a third of an orange), so we need to round down to 3 oranges. This means we have 7 apples.

So, Reese Algebra is all about using letters and symbols to help us solve problems that have more than one step or more than one variable. It may seem complicated at first, but with practice, you'll be able to solve all kinds of fun problems!