Virtual address space

Okay kiddo, imagine your room is like the computer's memory. You have your toys, books and crayons that you can use to play, learn and create to your heart's content. But you only have a limited amount of space in your room, just like the computer has a limited amount of memory.

Now, let's say you have a big box where you keep all your extra toys, books and crayons that you don't need right now. You can't see them, but you know they're there and you can access them anytime you want by going to the box and taking out what you need.

The computer works the same way. It has a virtual address space which is like the big box that holds all the information and programs that aren't currently being used. The computer can't access all of this information at once because it doesn't have enough physical memory. So instead, it uses a system called paging to switch back and forth between what's in the physical memory and what's in the virtual memory.

Think of it like a bookshelf with only a few books you need to read right now. The rest of the books are in a bigger library, but you can only take one book out at a time to read. You read a few pages and then put the book back on the shelf and take out a different book. The computer does this with the virtual address space, constantly swapping data in and out of the physical memory as needed.

So in summary, the virtual address space is like a big box where the computer stores all the extra information and programs it isn't using. It uses a system called paging to switch back and forth between what's in the physical memory and what's in the virtual memory, kind of like taking books off a shelf to read and then putting them back.