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Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, has died at 101
- uptown 7y ago"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.
- vidanay 7y agoNo, the quality of work (and quantity) is staggering, unconditionally.
- TrickyRick 7y agoBut it's extra staggering considering the consequences which I'm sure is what OP meant :)
- DamnYuppie 7y agoUp until the last 40 years of human history almost everything was calculated and drawn by hand. Every building, machine, road, bridge, airplane, ship, and everything else was designed by hand with pen and paper. Given the times doing what they did would not be unexpected, i.e. doing a good job by hand. This doesn't take away from the work and accomplishment. But I see it more as a job well done then something truly out of the ordinary for the times.
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- nine_k 7y agoDigital desktop calculators were a thing since late 1960s, and helped a lot with these hand-driven calculations. They were large boxes with nixie tubes, the size of a modern midi-tower PC, only horizontal. They were limited to relatively simple operations, like square root or ln. They were more precise than a slide rule, though.
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- rrss 7y agoDoes 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.
- trca 7y agoAccording 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.
- mdiesel 7y agoDigital 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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- 19870213 7y agoJohn Glenn apparently refused to fly based on the number of the computers unless Katherine Johnson checked them first.
- divbzero 7y agoThis was dramatized in Hidden Figures but apparently based on fact: [1] > As a computer, she calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. [1]: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count https://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-...
- QuesnayJr 7y agoIt 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.
- sreyaNotfilc 7y agoMy 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.
- akgerber 7y agoThere aren't that many movies out there about the excitement of a technical career and that movie was a great one.
- leeoniya 7y agoi also enjoyed the movie, but there was a bit too much creative license applied to push an agenda (for my taste). for something based on a real person and real events, bending the truth for dramatic effect does not sit well with me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures#Historical_accuracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures#Historical_accu...
- dcuthbertson 7y agoI think it's okay, as this was a movie for entertainment rather than a documentary.
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- throwaway123x2 7y agoDo we get a little black bar on the site for her?
- nexuist 7y agoI 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?
- throwaway123x2 7y agoI'm not sure, but we usually see it for pioneers in the field and in my opinion she certainly qualifies.
- starpilot 7y agoShe 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.
- elliekelly 7y agoI'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.
- elliekelly 7y agoThe guidance I've always seen is that the black bar is added "when someone important to the HN community dies". And I agree with the commenter you're replying to, Katherine Johnson and her work certainly qualify as important to the HN community.
- curiousgal 7y agoI invite everyone to watch the movie Hidden Figures.
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- jdelsman 7y agoWhy no black banner?
- keville 7y agoLogged in just to ask this, too
- rabboRubble 7y agologged in to ask this. copy / paste guy got a banner, why not her?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- balls187 7y agoMy assumption--copy/paste was computing, while her work was for primarily for the space program.
- chaostheory 7y agoI 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
- bcheung 7y agoI just watched Hidden Figures last night. What an unfortunate coincidence.
- xtracto 7y agoOne of the original Computers. All respect to her and other people that helped humanity achieve so much with so few.
- chirau 7y agoWhere 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
- dhimes 7y agoI think this is worthy of the black band at the top of the page.
- leshokunin 7y agoRest 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.
- foxx-boxx 7y agoShe probably wore an Apple Watch.
- catpolice 7y agoShe presumably waited until 101 so as to die in her prime.
- lowdose 7y agoThis 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