[3d3mon]

Both of your examples are new to me as well, however I can make sense of topics discussed. Just to use your example, the first equation for B-splines defines it as a function from a tuple of ordered reals to real vector of dimension d. The real difficulty with math is not so much the symbols as they give a precise but very legalistic way of defining things but the underlying concept or intuition that it represents, the deep semantics if you will. The best analogy is law. The way a lawyer or judge defines things will be different from the way a lay person would due to the difference in precision. The descriptions will be technically correct but will make you second guess on what it really means. I wouldn't go so far as to say it sucks but math is definitely scientific legalese.