I've been having a sticky-beak here and there, searching for examples of code (math functions) solving material problems with the intent of fleshing out my collection of math functions and illustrations of nodes thus created. Renderosity and RuntimeDNA are rich with this sort of thing. At this point in time, I feel it's clearly the best strategy for getting my head around how they're made.

My Material room is quickly starting to fill up - stuff I've been looking for like non-repeating sand and water and all kinds of lovely materials tend to side-track me from what I'm really after: math and the nodes that that math creates. Like the stuff we covered earlier in this thread.

I'm at that point in my exploration where I want to understand how a math process like:
f(X)
= f([-1, 1, 0])
= ([-1, 1, 0] + [1, 1, 1]) / 2
= [0, 2, 1] / 2
= [0, 1, .5]

can be expressed in nodes like the upper half of:

...hope you don't mind I borrowed your image and your function, Bill... it illustrated perfectly what I wanted to say. To that end, these functions and associated node sets are ending up in this fine little collection. Understanding the association between math and node set-up should save you having to teaching remedial Poser nodes, so you can get to the exciting stuff, like what all is contained in the Diffuse Channel.

Unless you'd like to shed some light on it: this is after all a "For Dummies" thread.

BTW, other readers, am I alone in being unclear how to translate math into nodes? If so, let's do move on... hate to be the monkey that stops the show.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks