ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Riemann–Hurwitz formula

So, let's say you have a big, fancy cake with a lot of decorations on it. Each decoration is like a point on the surface of the cake. The Riemann-Hurwitz formula is a way to understand how all those decorations are connected and how many there are.

First, imagine you could flatten out the cake like a map. The Riemann-Hurwitz formula tells you how many points (decorations) there are on the cake's surface, based on how many holes the cake has and how it's decorated.

But it's not just about counting the points. The Riemann-Hurwitz formula also tells you about how those points are related to each other. It helps you understand how the decorations (or points) are "glued" together.

And that's where things get a bit more complicated. The formula involves some fancy math called topology, which helps us understand how shapes and spaces are connected.

Now, let's try to summarize all that fancy stuff in simple words: the Riemann-Hurwitz formula is like a map that shows you how many decorations (or points) there are on a cake's surface, and how they're connected to each other based on how the cake is decorated. It's a fancy way of understanding shapes and spaces, using math!