[adeelk]

> Mostly, when I come across complex equations in CS papers, I tend to skip over them and only go back to look at them if there are parts of the paper I can't make sense of without them - it is very rare to find that they are necessary at all.

Obviously any equation can be expressed in words, but those who are familiar with the notation are able to read the equations and understand the ideas in a paper in a fraction of the time. This is important for those who read papers regularly.