December 6 - Gladys West Is Not So Hidden Now!

nPosted on December 6, 2019

Key points

nThe movie Hidden Figures displayed for all the world people who were part of one of the biggest accomplishments of humankind: going to space and returning safely back to Earth.

nBut…why would a movie about folks involved with early space exploration be called “Hidden Figures”? For sure, the NASA astronauts were literally paraded before the public, and even the NASA engineers and administrators whose names did not get mentioned on TV or in magazine articles, let alone become household names, certainly weren’t hidden from view. We got to see rooms full of them working busily during countdowns and touchdowns – and see them cheer, shake hands, maybe even jump up and down when a flight was successful.

nBut there were some Space-Race workers who were hidden from view.

I was alive during the Space Race, and I definitely never saw photos of rooms full of women – including at least one room full of black women – doing the computations necessary to achieve each launch and orbit and all the rest of it! I never knew until recently that computers, back then, were humans – and that women were used as human computers because they were careful, speedy, reliable – AND THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO BE PAID MUCH!

nSheesh! These invaluable women – women who used their degrees in mathematics, women upon whom the lives of the oh-so-valued (male) astronauts relied – were not shown that they were valued with professional status and (generally speaking) promotions. Sigh.

nThe movie Hidden Figures at last drew our attention to these long-overlooked contributors, more than half a century after the Space Race began. That movie showed a room full of black women acting as human computers – and later learning programming – but especially featured Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson.

nToday we celebrate another human computer – another once-hidden figure: Gladys West.

One of West’s accomplishments was a complex project of computing the exact shape of the Earth. You may think, “Hmph, that’s not so complex – the Earth is a sphere!” But actually, because of the Earth spins, it is an oblate spheroid – which just means that it’s flattened at the poles, like a slightly squashed sphere. West had to consider gravitational and tidal forces as she computed the Earth’s shape.

n“Okay,” you may think, “I agree that it’s complex. But who really cares?” The answer to that is: we ALL care. Modern technology that involves GPS – like our beloved map apps, plus flying and other forms of transportation, location services like finding lost hikers, keeping pets and elderly relatives safe, law enforcement, and so much more – relies on West’s mathematical work!