There's no real escaping math if you want to get into working with those. I suppose you could try to find libraries on them (if they exist), but really just playing with them in code is probably best especially if you are trying to use them to make interesting visuals.

@takuppp

I sympathize. I am not, shall we say, mathematically gifted. But working my way through Processing projects has gone a long ways towards helping me with my math, in terms of skill and appreciation and desire.

You've mentioned some fairly ambitious goals. That's good! But this will also lead to frustration if you try to swallow the whole thing at once.

Want to understand flocking? Break it down to smaller, more manageable studies. First be able to get an agent to move, then understand the math behind its heading. Move up to particle systems, and examine the issues of cohesion and separation.

Find (or ask for) examples of some of the components that make these things work, and reverse engineer them.

You will want to work your way up to some basic understanding of trigonometry. You can go a long, long way with just that. If you're not there yet, let your love of small projects help you build the bridge.

Let your love of design and creativity guide you on the exploration. Be happy with simple discoveries. You'll build your math muscles this way almost (but not quite) painlessly, and with a great deal of joy as compensation.

Like they say in the movie "Contact,"

"Small moves, Ellie. Small moves."

let me see...

in the learning sections are great articles about PVectors or trig:
http://www.processing.org/learning/

in openprocessing - http://www.openprocessing.org/collections -
is a whole section on flocking
http://www.openprocessing.org/collection/448
with a desciption and sketches
There's also one collection for geometry:
http://www.openprocessing.org/collection/1388

I always read Wikipedia articles on topics like Spirograph
to get the maths:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph

I own at least two books on processing

• Ira Greenberg, processing. Creative coding and computational art
• and Generative Design by Hartmut Bohnacker, Benedikt Gross, Julia Laub, and Claudius Lazzeroni.

see http://processing.org/learning/books/

Both bring in math when they need it, e.g. trig, curves or Lissajous curve ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve ).
From a quick glance, the 2nd brings in more maths, the 1st has a math appendix.

Both don't have voronoi, flocking formula (as maths) but are more intermediate level.

On Youtube there are lectures. eg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYId5bEn7Lo


Greetings, Chrisir   

"The Nature Of Code" does a fabulous job of explaining these concepts to people who do not have a strong math background, as well as how to implement them in Processing.

I like to thanx everyone for their response.