ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Von Neumann's trace inequality

Okay kiddo, let me try to explain von Neumann's trace inequality in a way you can understand it.

Let's say you have a box of candies with different flavors. You want to know how many different flavors are in the box, but you don't want to taste them all. So you decide to count how many candies are in the box. But here's the catch, some flavors might have more candies than others.

Now, let's say you have a bigger box with even more candies, but you have to count them all to find out how many flavors there are, and it takes a lot of time and effort. So you decide to use a formula called von Neumann's trace inequality to help you count the flavors more easily.

The formula measures the "trace" of a matrix, or in this case, a table where the rows represent flavors and the columns represent candies. It tells you how many flavors are in the box, and it works even if some flavors have more candies than others. It's like magic!

So in summary, von Neumann's trace inequality is a way to count flavors in a box of candies without having to taste each one. It's a cool trick that makes it easier and faster to find out how many different flavors there are.