I'm sure Mr. Spock had to deal with this all the time and I sure as hell know that many people in my undergrad math department did!
~Kyle
my turn [steps up on the soap box] Everyone should learn at least calculus and differential equations. Elementary concepts of signal processing (not necessarily DSP) are grounded in diff eq. It makes a good jumping off point for looking at Fourier Transforms, convolution, filters (of course, these are just ordinary 2nd order diff eq with a forcing function (the input)), and the list goes on and on. 'Elitism' is something to be applied to individuals, not whole communities(online or academic or where ever they may reside). Hey, that goes for me too. If you think all musicians should learn at least differential equations... you might be an elitist. [steps down]
Chuck