Ergodicity is a concept in statistics and physics that describes how a system behaves over time. In an ergodic system, the time average of a process is equal to the ensemble average, meaning that if you observe the system long enough, its behavior will reflect the average behavior of all possible states. This is important in fields like thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. In simpler terms, if you take a snapshot of an ergodic system at different times, those snapshots will eventually show similar patterns. This property helps scientists understand complex systems, such as weather patterns or financial markets, by allowing them to make predictions based on long-term averages.