P.S. I’ve never used the X,Y,Z Math Surface, but it looks like that is bending 2 dimensional surfaces in 3 dimensional space.
Sort of the opposite of UV Unwrapping.
This might sound complicated, but you are so used to this phenomena: a circle is a 1 dimensional object, bent in 2 dimensional space. And likewise: a sphere is a 2 dimensional surface, bent in 3 dimensional space, as is a torus, etc…
Each of the 3 coordinates are being written as a function of 2 variables (named u and v). If you’d use more than 2 variables, then it wouldn’t be a surface anymore.
Doesn’t have anything to do with vector math btw…