Analysis Of Hidden Figures By Margot Lee Shetterly

The 2016 film, Hidden Figures, is based of the book by the same title written by Margot Lee Shetterly. It is the story of the three women working as “human-computers” for NASA during the 1950s (Meyers, 2016). These women were part of a huge force of women, scientists, and mathematicians that “launched” the American space program into the lead of the great space race. There are many good articles covering the math mentioned in the movie and the problems with human obstinance during the time period, including “Hidden Figures and the Appeal of Math in an Age of Inequality” and “Exploring the Math in ‘Hidden Figures’”. The first article that I looked at was ‘Hidden Figures and the Appeal of Math in an Age of Inequality”. From this article I got two good points: math is

Before I dive into explaining these ideas in the article, I would like to provide an example. Take into consideration movies. When you think of a movie, the first people you will think of are the actors and possibly the directors. So who gets the credit for the movie? The actors and directors. Rarely ever are the post-production editors, foley artists, mic holders, scene designers, or composers credited with making an exceptional movie. Now take this same concept and apply it to the race to get men into space. That is what this article is about. Too often do we give full credit to the astronaut. John Glenn was a hero, he orbited the earth seven times! But would he have been able to do that on his own without a team of scientists, mathematicians, and other “human computers”? The answer is a plain and simple no. At the time, NASA was at a standstill in its attempts to get a man into space. They had many black women