You find that a lot of physicsists, engineers and mathematicians are able to transition into software development rather quickly, there is however an underlying commonality between these fields and software engineering that makes it possible to transition.
People stepping into software engineering without a background in mathematics are often bewildered by some numeric conventions some of which include the fact that the number zero (0) doesn't mean "nothing", zero represents a lot and in terms of index position occupies the first position afterwhich number one (1) is the second position and the n-1 indexing pattern continues from there.
Even more puzzling is when the debate about whether the number zero (0) is odd or even. There are so many mathematical blurred lines that affects every facet of non-biological science. An understanding of mathematics can give one a leg up in learning software engineering.