
Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, has died at 101 - uptown
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/science/katherine-johnson-dead.html
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uptown
"Wielding little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of the finest
mathematical minds in the country, Mrs. Johnson, whose death at 101 was
announced on Monday by NASA, calculated the precise trajectories that would
let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrong’s history-
making moonwalk, let it return to Earth."

The quality of work, done by hand, is just staggering when you think of the
consequences that could have transpired if mistakes had been made.

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rrss
Does anyone know how this fits with the many digital computers NASA used for
mission planning (inc. trajectory planning)?

See e.g.
[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19680020624](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19680020624)
for Gemini.

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trca
According to Hidden Figures (which to the best of my knowledge is quite
accurate in representing Katherine Johnson), she actually hand checked most if
not every calculation performed by the digital computers and often found
miscalculations due to programming errors.

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mdiesel
Digital computers were in their infancy - at one point in that brilliant movie
the critical calculations are passed through the digital computer twice and
got different answers. Katherine was asked to repeat the calculations and her
result was then used.

The movie also shows Dorothy Vaughan teaching themselves how to program those
first machines. Remember that pretty much noone had any programming
experience, and there are still pitfalls today for people doing science
calculations on a computer.

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QuesnayJr
It must be weird to go from being completely forgotten for your contributions
to the moon landing to becoming famous, the main character in a major
Hollywood movie, and have a building at NASA named after you.

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sreyaNotfilc
My Dad and I watched 'Hidden Figures' a couple of weekends ago. Its such a
great movie. To think that this one person was able to do that floored me.

I told my Dad how lucky we are to be born with various abilities that we then
nurture and develop. The sky's the limit when we do the things we were "born"
to do.

This lady's mind was really meant to doing such calculations. So good!

I'm not sure if she wanted that attention, but she deserved it. I'm sure,
being 97 years old and now getting famous isn't that bad. I can't imagine
people taking too many photographs and interviews of here.

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Rebelgecko
It's a great movie. I read a bit about her afterwards. One cool thing is that
some of the parts that I assumed were made up by Hollywood to heighten the
drama (like Neil Armstrong say "I'm not launching unless she does the
calculations") weren't fabricated. That actually happened

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selimthegrim
It was John Glenn not Neil Armstrong

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Rebelgecko
Whoops, it's been a while since I saw the movie

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chaostheory
I didn't have time to do a virtual shrine for Larry Tesler but I've done an
incomplete one for Katherine a while back (feel free to add or update):

[https://theymadethat.com/people/4dm0q9/katherine-
johnson](https://theymadethat.com/people/4dm0q9/katherine-johnson)

imo it's nice to have a visual of someone's work

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catpolice
She presumably waited until 101 so as to die in her prime.

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curiousgal
I invite everyone to watch the movie Hidden Figures.

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xtracto
One of the original Computers. All respect to her and other people that helped
humanity achieve so much with so few.

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leshokunin
Rest in peace, and thanks for the inspiration of what a dedicated, hard
working person can achieve. I'm glad she got to receive the recognition she
deserved in her life.

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lowdose
This was in a time Belgium had an expose of their Congolese people next to the
monkeys at the World Expo 1958.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_58](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_58)

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bcheung
I just watched Hidden Figures last night. What an unfortunate coincidence.

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dhimes
I think this is worthy of the black band at the top of the page.

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jdelsman
Why no black banner?

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rabboRubble
logged in to ask this. copy / paste guy got a banner, why not her?

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throwaway123x2
Do we get a little black bar on the site for her?

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nexuist
I wish there was some sort of official guidelines on when the black bar is
appropriate. There is no doubt that Mrs. Johnson helped accelerate the field
of computer science and legitimized its existence, as not just a branch of
mathematics, but a whole new field on its own.

The bigger question is, is that what the black bar is for?

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throwaway123x2
I'm not sure, but we usually see it for pioneers in the field and in my
opinion she certainly qualifies.

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starpilot
She was a pioneer in civil rights and advancing social mores. There's no
question she has made great contributions to humanity. But in computing, she
was one of numerous analysts performing calculations as part of a massive,
sprawling government program. Millions of engineers, scientists, and
mathematicians have died since and we honor very few of them. I admire Johnson
enormously but her work in math is not what distinguishes her.

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elliekelly
I'm curious why you think her work in math is separate and distinct from her
work in advancing equality? I think her mathematics work alone distinguishes
her but even if you don't, why do you not view her social contributions to the
field as worthy of recognition?

Jackie Robinson was a great baseball player but his contributions to the game
extend far beyond how he performed on the field.

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chirau
Where is the black bar? And what are the guidelines as to who gets it? Or that
is at the discernment of a few people?

#BlackHistoryMonth

