[HN Gopher] Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, has died at 101
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Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, has died at 101
Author : uptown
Score : 430 points
Date : 2020-02-24 15:22 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| uptown wrote:
| "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.
| [deleted]
| rrss wrote:
| 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 for
| Gemini.
| trca wrote:
| 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.
| mdiesel wrote:
| 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.
| 19870213 wrote:
| John Glenn apparently refused to fly based on the number of
| the computers unless Katherine Johnson checked them first.
| divbzero wrote:
| This 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-...
| vidanay wrote:
| No, the quality of work (and quantity) is staggering,
| unconditionally.
| TrickyRick wrote:
| But it's extra staggering considering the consequences which
| I'm sure is what OP meant :)
| DamnYuppie wrote:
| Up 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.
| [deleted]
| leshokunin wrote:
| 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.
| chaostheory wrote:
| 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
|
| imo it's nice to have a visual of someone's work
| curiousgal wrote:
| I invite everyone to watch the movie Hidden Figures.
| chirau wrote:
| 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
| bcheung wrote:
| I just watched Hidden Figures last night. What an unfortunate
| coincidence.
| [deleted]
| throwaway123x2 wrote:
| Do we get a little black bar on the site for her?
| _fs wrote:
| Nope, she's not a venture capitalist, so this site couldn't
| care less.
| nexuist wrote:
| 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?
| throwaway123x2 wrote:
| I'm not sure, but we usually see it for pioneers in the field
| and in my opinion she certainly qualifies.
| starpilot wrote:
| 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.
| elliekelly wrote:
| 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.
| elliekelly wrote:
| The 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.
| dhimes wrote:
| I think this is worthy of the black band at the top of the page.
| jdelsman wrote:
| Why no black banner?
| rabboRubble wrote:
| logged in to ask this. copy / paste guy got a banner, why not
| her?
| [deleted]
| keville wrote:
| Logged in just to ask this, too
| balls187 wrote:
| My assumption--copy/paste was computing, while her work was for
| primarily for the space program.
| QuesnayJr wrote:
| 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.
| sreyaNotfilc wrote:
| 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.
| VikingCoder wrote:
| > The sky's the limit when we do the things we were "born" to
| do.
|
| I tend to think the sky's the limit, and we all need good
| mentors. Check out "Stand and Deliver", another great movie,
| based on a real story.
| QuesnayJr wrote:
| The NYT article really emphasized her college mentor,
| William Claytor.
| akgerber wrote:
| There aren't that many movies out there about the excitement
| of a technical career and that movie was a great one.
| leeoniya wrote:
| i 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_acc
| u...
| leeoniya wrote:
| i encourage the downvoters to actually read the wiki
| entry. some of the central points of drama revolve around
| an atmosphere and conditions that did not exist at nasa
| when these events took place. e.g.
|
| "I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody
| there was doing research. You had a mission and you
| worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job
| ... and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any
| segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it."
|
| the primary character clearly states that there was no
| feeling of segregation, yet the movie centrally revolves
| around her direct experience of blatant, overt racisim.
|
| imo, the story is amazing/inspirational on its own
| without this intentional misrepresentation.
| smashthepants wrote:
| Your conclusion is wrong - she admits in the quote you
| referenced that segregation was there. She does not say
| it didn't affect her, she says she didn't feel it (as in
| let it affect her own behavior, cloud her mind, react to
| it, etc).
|
| To my recollection (I could be wrong it's been years),
| the movie didn't focus on her feelings about segregation,
| it focused on the actual segregation and the effects of
| that segregation on her daily life (i.e. obstacles that
| would have been in her way), which is distinctly
| different from her feelings about said segregation and
| obstacles...which is what she's referring to in the
| quote.
|
| The book actually touches on this:
|
| "She knew just as well as any other black person the tax
| levied upon them because of their color. But she didn't
| feel it in the same way. She wished it away, willed it
| out of existence inasmuch as her daily life was
| concerned."
|
| MANY members of different marginalized groups
| deliberately choose this outlook as a method of self
| preservation in an attempt to minimize the very real
| emotional, physical, and spiritual toll created by these
| -isms. Quite a bit of research on the topic if it's
| something that interests you. But their choice not to
| acknowledge the source of these obstacles (i.e. racism)
| doesn't mean it's not there and it doesn't mean there
| aren't significant challenges...
| dcuthbertson wrote:
| I think it's okay, as this was a movie for entertainment
| rather than a documentary.
| leeoniya wrote:
| i think the line is sufficiently blurred since it is
| based on real people and events. there's a certain level
| of social contract that comes with this.
| QuesnayJr wrote:
| I don't think there is such a social contract. As far as
| I can tell, the only two things _Bohemian Rhapsody_ got
| right was a) Freddie Mercury was gay, and b) Queen played
| at Live Aid. One of the villains in the Titanic movie in
| real life was a hero.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Did anyone have a go at "October Sky" for pushing an
| "agenda"?
| leeoniya wrote:
| i cannot tell you since i have neither seen the movie,
| nor was i monitoring Reddit comments in 1999.
|
| but i assume that yes, at least a few had a "go" at it,
| based on statistical probability alone.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Well I saw it in grade school then and I don't recall any
| of that
| leeoniya wrote:
| and i don't recall any two-sided debate on any social,
| political or economic issues in grade school either.
|
| perhaps not everything that can be said about a subject
| is discussed in grade school?
| irrational wrote:
| What was the agenda? I saw the movie once many years ago.
| I mainly remember it being about kids building rockets.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| McDowell County is poorest part of WV with life outcomes
| and vital statistics worse than ghettoes.
| irrational wrote:
| That's the location. But what is the agenda?
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| 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
| selimthegrim wrote:
| It was John Glenn not Neil Armstrong
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| Whoops, it's been a while since I saw the movie
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| I think it's pretty unfortunate so many people, particularly
| women and people of color, have gone unrecognized for their
| accomplishments in their lifetime. It's somewhat heartening to
| me that she was, however late, recognized properly within her
| lifetime for her incredible contributions.
| throwaway39AZ wrote:
| Hundreds of thousands of people worked on Mercury and Apollo.
| How many can you name?
| malcolmgreaves wrote:
| Wow, bold courageous move there. Making a throwaway just to
| challenge someone pointing out an effect of racism.
| Everyone thinks you're so incredible. /s
| throwaway39AZ wrote:
| I'm so sorry. I'm just supposed to believe that " _so
| many people, particularly women and people of color, have
| gone unrecognized for their accomplishments in their
| lifetime_ " when Katherine Johnson and Margaret Hamilton
| are the only NASA ground staff that I can name. Is there
| anything else you want me to believe?
| danielg6 wrote:
| They didn't specially mention NASA in their comment. You
| know of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but have you
| heard of Lewis Latimer? Probably not.
| throwaway39AZ wrote:
| > You know of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but have
| you heard of Lewis Latimer?
|
| His work was not as significant. Compare https://en.wikip
| edia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimer#Technical... to
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents and
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patent
| s
| danielg6 wrote:
| Ok. You know of Sally Ride but not Mae Jemison. Their
| work is equivalent.
|
| You know of Watson and Crick, but not Rosalind Franklin.
| By you, I mean the general you.
| rtkwe wrote:
| You're more likely to know their name because of the
| recent efforts to highlight their work an contributions
| BECAUSE they were ignored for so long.
| cc81 wrote:
| I think he has a point though and I don't disparage
| elevating people like her because she broke gender and
| racial barriers in addition to making great
| contributions.
|
| But it was a pretty huge team effort and you will never
| know of that boring white middle age man who did equally
| as important engineering or mathematical work.
|
| There is not necessarily wrong with it but it is pretty
| funny when I think about famous programmers my mind goes
| to Ada Lovelace, Margret Hamilton, Grace Hopper, Denis
| Ritchie and Linus Torvalds.
|
| All great programmers and I know others exists but those
| are the ones I think I hear the most about I think.
| throwaway39AZ wrote:
| > the recent efforts to highlight their work an
| contributions
|
| Precisely! They have not gone unrecognized unlike the
| hundreds of thousands of other NASA ground staff.
|
| > they were ignored for so long.
|
| They never were _ignored_. They have recently been
| _elevated_ above all the other NASA ground staff.
| xtracto wrote:
| 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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