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Hidden Figures

Added Feb 05, 2021 •

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A reading of Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly

Show Transcript

hidden figures the true story of four black women and the Space Race written by Margot Lee shetterly and illustrated by Laura Freeman Dorothy Vaughan Mary Jackson Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden for good at math we good in 1943 the United States was at War World War II Dorothy Vaughan wanted to serve her country by working for the national advisory committee for Aeronautics the government agency that designed airplanes having the best airplanes would help America win the war making airplanes fly faster and higher and safer not doing lots of tests at the agencies Langley laboratory in Hampton Virginia text Matt numbers numbers math math and math net computers today we think of computers as machine but in the 1940s computers were actual people like Dorothy Mary Catherine and Christine dog was to do math because Dorothy was black and a woman some people thought it would be impossible for her to get a job as a computer she lived in Virginia a Southern state where laws segregated or depart black people and white people did not eat in the same restaurant they could not drink from the same water fountains they could not use the same restrooms they could not attend the same schools they could not play on the same sports teams they could not sit near each other and movies they could not marry someone of A different race but Dorothy didn't think it was impossible she was good at math really good she knew she was the right person for the job she applied in the laboratory offered her a Mission as a computer at work blacks and whites were kept apart the white computers worked in one building and Dorothy and the other black computers worked in a different building in their separate office even though they work on the kinds of assignment the black computers and white computers used separate bathrooms and 8 in separate lunch rooms America won the war 1945 still trying to make things faster and safer by 1951 the Americans and the Russians were competing to see who can build the best plane that meant more experiments and more numbers lots and lots of numbers and more numbers meant the need for more computers Jackson got a job as a computer at Langley model airplanes in the internal and blasted them with air from the fan this experiment helped her group improve their design on the models before building full size airplanes Mary wanted to become an engineer but official said it was impossible most of the engineer the laboratory or men and to become an engineer Mary needed to take high-level math classes but she wasn't allowed to go inside the white school where the classes were taught but Mary was good at math really good and she refused to give up she got permission to enter the school building and take the math classes and she earned good grades because she didn't give up Mary Jackson became the first African American female engineer at the laboratory when Johnson was good at math and always asks lots of questions in 1953 she applied to the laboratory for a computer job and was placed on a team that tested actual plans while they were flying in the air their research was used to figure out ways to put future plane crashes in one of her first project she learned how to analyze turbulence or dangerous gusts of air Catherine did the Help the group prepare its research report so she asked if she could go to meetings with the other experts on her team her boss told her it was impossible women aren't allowed to attend meetings he said but Catherine knew she was as good does anyone else maybe better so she asked him again and again and again Catherine ask her boss so many times that he finally invited her to the meeting was good at math really good has she fought to be treated the same as the man she became the first woman in her group to sign her name to one of the group's report in the 1950s the Langley laboratory bought a machine computer that could do math faster than the human computers these machines made mistakes Dorothy learned how to program the machines so that they got the right answers she taught the women in her group how to program the computers to in 1957 Russia the satellite known as Sputnik into orbit around the Earth the United States started building satellites to explore space to 4 years the laboratory have use math to design airplanes now it would need math to create spaceships as well the gov decided to change the agency's name from the national advisory committee for Aeronautics to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA in 1961 President John F Kennedy told Congress I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of Landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth a man on the moon but the first step to getting a man on the moon was to send an astronaut around the earth NASA was going to need to hire more space experts and more people who are good at math really good the people at the laboratory had to work together from morning tonight to figure out how to send Astronaut John run into space and bring him back home to Earth safely Katherine Johnson knew she could use math to help tell me where you want his spaceship to land and I'll tell you where to launch it Catherine told her boss Catherine help calculate the trajectories or Pathways that Rockets travel through space she had to plan Glenn exact route from take off in Florida to Splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean there was no room for error no one was better than Catherine at solving these tricky math problems days before his mission John Glenn wanted Katherine to double-check the machine computers trajectory calculations to make sure it hadn't made any mistakes when Catherine said the numbers were correct and was ready to go on February 20th 1862 Glen blasted off into space circle the Earth and made his way home safely meanwhile laws began to change so that black and white students could go to school together black spot for the right to the side lights on buses and to drink from the same water fountains at the laboratory black and white computer started working together in the same offices eating at the same lunch tables and using the same bathrooms black and white moviegoers cat sitting three children the same theater across the country people started to think about ways to bring equality to all Americans Christine Darden was good at math and she loves electron computers she started working at Langley in 1967 Christine wanted to become an engineer and thanks to Dorothy Mary and Katherine she knew it was possible eventually she became an engineer for supersonic airplanes find faster than the speed of sound but her first job was to help with NASA's mission to the Moon the people at the laboratory prepared for years to send astronauts to the Moon about 238900 miles away finally on July 20th 1969 the world watched as the three men arrived at the moon in there Apollo 11 spacecraft that's one small step for man one giant leap for mankind did astronaut Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the dusty surface but it was also a giant leap for Dorothy Mary Catherine Christine and all the other computers and engineer's would work at the laboratory over the years moon landing was a success from the splash down but there was no time to rest once NASA landed astronauts on the moon the people at the laboratory began dreaming of sending humans to other planets such as Mars or Jupiter or Saturn they star to imagine hyper-fast face planes that could travel around the Earth at seven times the speed of sound the next adventure wouldn't be easy and would require lots of tests and lots more numbers Dorothy Mary Catherine and Christine new one thing with hard work perseverance and a love of math anything was possible

Uploaded by Jessica Mills.

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