Yesterday, I watched the new movie “Hidden Figures” and was impressed by this unknown story of three African American women who were instrumental in getting the first US man i=to orbit the earth.
As a mathematician and a scientist, it was heartwarming to see these women excel in scientific endeavors, despite the racial and sexist push back they received, but overcame. There is still today these same prejudices in education, the workplace and the world at large. If you are black, if you are a woman (and if you are LGBT) you cannot do high profile jobs.
The movie shows that time in history when the Russians sent a man in space and the US was lagging. NASA hired a team of mathematicians to do hand calculations on the orbits of spaceships. This was before punched card machines became available. These three “computers” (as they were called), were steered by the NASA manager played by Kevin Kostner.
Well worth seeing and learning the lessons of history (and algorithms if you are so inclined).