[ale] OT: Diffie-Hellman key exchange for dummies?

[Jay Loden]

This is somewhat off topic for a Linux enthusiast group, but this a group of smart folks with lots of knowledge, so I figured it might be a good place to ask anyway:

I've heard the term "Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange" used before, and in basic terms I know that it's a secure way of agreeing on a secret key. However, when I tried to read a couple of articles to understand how it works under the hood, I found myself out of my depth. I have programming experience, but I'm not formally trained, and I never went beyond Algebra 2. Even though I was able to implement a simplistic version of the exchange by following the Linux Journal article below I don't really understand why it works on a mathematical level.

Anyone who likes a challenge feel like trying to explain in laymen's terms to a mathematically challenged individual? :-)

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie-Hellman
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2248
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6131
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_logarithm

-Jay