[Ads-l] "Human computer" as retronym & Hidden Figures

[Amy West]

Proud indeed! Way cool!

---Amy West

On 1/30/17 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 2017 09:20:51 +0000
> From:    Margaret Lee<mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject: Re: "Human computer" as retronym & Hidden Figures
>
> It is interesting that this topic has appeared on this list.  The author of the book, 'Hidden Figures,' on which  the movie is based, is my daughter, Margot Lee Shetterly.  My husband was an engineer at NASA Langley  and Margot had met the women that she writes about and that are featured in the movie.  I have seen the movie four times and have met the cast. The female mathematicians who worked at NASA before the advent of computers as we know them today were called 'human computers' because they did mathematical calculations by hand and verified the results on mechanical calculators of the time.
>
> I had dinner with Katherine Goble Johnson last week.  She is alive and well at age 98.
> You probably know that the movie has been nominated for three Academy Awards and was # 1 at the box office for two consecutive weekends. The book is still #1 on the NY Times Best-Seller list.
>
> Proud Mom,  Margaret Lee



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