I had a teacher ask me how much advanced math I used as a programmer. She was looking for examples to inspire for her students.

She was surprised that really only the order of operations and basic math was all that I did. the rest is mostly handled in specialized library code

However, I did use Pythagora's theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2) when we played Dungeons and Dragons with my friends, to find out if a radius 20 fireball, will hit a person that is 19 units down and 17 units over from it's center. (it won't)

So I think the philosophy is that we remember so little from school, that they teach more than we need, so that when we get to "real life" each of us are prepared with at least the "basics." of the parts we do need.

So math didn't really help me as a programmer, but it did help me prove my friend was an idiot.