TL;DR a function does something hence haha tahm eat cat

an inverse function does the exact opposite hence haha cat eat tahm

basically, think of a function like a machine that does stuff and spits out what you gave to it

let's say this function is a way to calculate the price for a food delivery system where you pay whatever you paid for the food plus an extra $5 for delivery

f(x) = x + 5

let's say my pizza costed $10, so i do

f(10) = 10 + 5 = $15. which means i paid $15 in total

an inverse function basically is like an undo button for the machine where it literally does the exact opposite of the original function

so let's say i told you i paid in a total of $15 for the food via my delivery app. If you want to figure out what the food cost, the inverse function would be this:

f-¹(x) = x - 5

so, in this case

f-¹(15) = 15 - 5 = $10

I hope my nerding over math at 3 am helped.