Ask HN: Just enough math to read computer papers?

I've recently been reading papers on computer science topics. I find the math hard to understand -- it seems like what would be a clear function, taking a page of code, is turned into a single mathematical statement (or, perhaps, a handful of them). Clear variable or function names become latin and greek letters with adornments, for loops become sigmas, etc.

I really have the feeling that often these aren't as hard to understand as the math makes them out to be.

Is there a good way to learn just enough math to understand these papers? Something that recasts mathematical operators in code?

(I've been reading up on computer vision -- classical image processing, and more modern machine learning -- and kinda get it (although I only understand, say, the surface level of how the Harris Corner Detector works). When I was reading up on fluid dynamics -- oh, my, goodness! That's a lot of unfamiliar math!)