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for the type of computer who has some mathematical background the type of work required of her could probably be better done on the calculating machine.Įach computing section has one light-table for tracing purposes. The computers were also furnished with 20 inch (log-log duplex) slide rules.
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The automatic calculator is usually the Friden or Marchant. The automatic computing machines and Comptometers cost over $500.00 each.
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The women in these roles knew how to organize computational work and how to do so quickly without making mistakes. Data reduction and analysis were carried out with the help of calculators, slide rules, planimeters, drafting tools, and other instruments. Depending on the application, the data were smoothed, plotted, and interpolated. Computers gathered data by reading pressure values from manometers placed in the wind tunnel. the work of a computer required skill and judgment.
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Some great detail on their working environment comes from a 1942 memo reproduced in Hidden Figures and Human Computers | National Air and Space Museum, including these brief excerpts: The book also notes that the human computers used mechanical calculators. Update: See more on Glenn's orbit here: Where to look for historical or reconstructed orbit data for early NASA missions - Mercury-Atlas 6 for example worked thru every minute of what was programmed to be three-orbit mission, coming up with numbers for eleven different output variables, each computed to eight significant digits. This example from the (most excellent) Hidden Figures book provides some details of the actual computations that she did, checking the IBM 7090 trajectory calculations for the first US orbital mission. The first memo, on orbit determination, that Katherine Johnson did, with a co-worker, is The Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite over a Selected Earth Position 1960.
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(This is adapted from my question/answer at Day-to-day tasks of human computers, ala Hidden Figures movie - History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange)