What's the meaning of "tree"? [closed]

What's the meaning of "tree" in the following sentence?

Pappus showed how both analysis and synthesis are used to solve problems by working in both directions to find a solution path (a tree or sequence of causes leading to the desired effect) that fully links a solution to known causes.

Solution 1:

A tree here would mean a structure which, if you follow, would give you the complete relation you're looking for- in this case, the link between causes and effects.

The idea of tree here is borrowed from the data structure "Tree" as used in computer science. From Wikipedia:

A tree structure or tree diagram is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree structure" because the classic representation resembles a tree, even though the chart is generally upside down compared to an actual tree, with the "root" at the top and the "leaves" at the bottom.

A tree structure is conceptual, and appears in several forms. For a discussion of tree structures in specific fields, see Tree (data structure) for computer science: insofar as it relates to graph theory, see tree (graph theory), or also tree (set theory). Other related pages are listed below.

For better understanding, here is a simple tree structure showing the division of an encyclopedia, that might help make things clear (from Wikipedia as well):