ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Restricted sumset

Okay kiddo, are you ready for a fun math lesson? Let's talk about something called a "restricted sumset."

A sumset is just what it sounds like – it's a set of numbers that you can add together to get other numbers. So if you have the set {1, 2, 3}, the sumset would be {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. That's because you can add numbers from the original set together to get those numbers in the sumset.

But a restricted sumset is a little different. Instead of just any old set of numbers, a restricted sumset has rules about which pairs of numbers can be added together to get other numbers. For example, a restricted sumset might say that you can only add numbers that are next to each other in the original set. So if you have the set {1, 2, 3}, the restricted sumset would be {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. That's because you can only add 1+2 to get 3, and you can only add 2+3 to get 5.

Restricted sumsets can have all kinds of rules, and figuring out what the rules are and what the sumset looks like can be a fun puzzle!
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