Thom space

Have you ever played with building blocks before? Imagine you have a bunch of different shapes and colors of blocks - some are big, some are small, some are flat, and some are round. Now, imagine you start putting these blocks together in a certain way to create a structure. This structure might have different parts that stick out, or it might have spaces in between the blocks. The way you put these blocks together creates a certain shape or structure, and this is kind of like Thom space.

Thom space is a way of looking at shapes and spaces, kind of like how we look at the blocks we put together. It's named after a mathematician named René Thom who came up with this idea. In Thom space, we look at a shape or space and break it down into smaller parts, kind of like breaking down a structure made out of building blocks. We can then look at how these parts fit together and how they create a certain shape or structure.

Now, here's where it gets a little tricky. Thom space isn't just about looking at shapes and spaces - it's also about looking at how things change over time. Imagine you have a balloon that you blow up - as you blow it up, it gets bigger and the shape changes. This is kind of like how things can change in Thom space.

Thom space helps us understand how shapes and spaces change over time, and how the different parts fit together to create these changes. It's a really cool idea that helps mathematicians and scientists understand the world around us!