ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

SKI combinator calculus

Alright, kiddo, have you ever played with building blocks and made different structures? Well, the Ski Combinator Calculus is like playing with building blocks, but for grown-ups who love math!

Imagine a set of three types of blocks, called 'S', 'K', and 'I', that you can stack on top of each other to create different combinations. When you stack these blocks, you get a 'ski' shape, where each block is connected to the one below it.

Now, let's understand what each block does.

The 'S' block is like a magic wand that takes two ski shapes and combines them into one. For example, if we have one ski shape with an 'f' in the first block and another ski shape with a 'g' in the first block, putting them together with an 'S' block will give us a ski shape where the first block has the combination of 'f g'. Neat, right?

The 'K' block is like a shortcut that repeats the first block in any ski shape. So, if we have a ski shape with 'f g' in the first block and a ski shape with 'x' in the second block, putting them together with a 'K' block will give us a ski shape where every block has 'f' in it. Again, pretty cool!

Finally, the 'I' block is like a mirror that reflects whatever comes before it. So, if we have a ski shape with 'b' in the first block, then putting an 'I' block after it will give us a ski shape where the second block also has 'b' in it. That's fascinating!

By combining these three blocks in different ways, we can create a language that represents any function that can exist. It's like having an infinite set of building blocks to create limitless structures!

So, that's the Ski Combinator Calculus for you, kiddo. A fun way for grown-ups to play with building blocks and model complex mathematical functions.