system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What are 'fuzzy mathematics' and what are its applications?
gpt
'Fuzzy' is a term used to indicate that you're treating normally discrete phenomenon in a continuous manner.

For example, consider classic set theory. Let's say you have a classification scheme of 'fruit', 'vegetable' or 'meat'. You look in your refrigerator and sort everything you see into one or more of those categories. Each item you sort is fully within a category or fully outside of it. If something is a 'fruit', it is 100% a fruit.

A 'fuzzy' version of this would be to permit something to only be *partially* within a category. So something might be '50% a fruit'.

In terms of its applications, that's harder to say. 'Fuzzy math' is pure mathematics rather than applied mathematics. It's an intellectual framework for discussing such phenomenon. As a result, you can describe all sorts of different systems with fuzzy math, but almost no one actually uses fuzzy math to build those systems.