Question: what role does math play in life? 

Answer: Besides money, everyday math helps you plan for parties, select the right car parts and correctly double Aunt Jo's cookie recipe.  Some professionals use math to design iPods, Sirius radio, and the hybrid Honda Civic.  Other professionals use math to save the rain forest, create bionic eyes, and find new sources of energy.  Higher order math provide theories or guesses into the unknown such as the origin of the Universe or the existence of n-th Dimensions.  For me, math is mostly about money.
This question from the Yahoo Q&A forum is categorized in the topic: Science & Mathematics