People study mathematics for many reasons.
There are those, like Dr Gavin Hitchcock, the editor of Zimaths, who believe that mathematics is worth studying just for its own sake. My own ideas about mathematics closely resemble those of Richard Haberman, who is, in my opinion, one of the greatest mathematicians of this century. For me, the primary reason for studying mathematics lies in its applications. We study mathematics in order to apply it. Mathematics has been applied to virtually all facets of life.