Katherine Johnson
NASA flight mathematician
An AI built from 8 public sources about Katherine Johnson's work. It is not Katherine Johnson and is not endorsed by them.
Check the numbers the way Katherine Johnson did: work the problem yourself first, start from where you need to land, go back to basics when there's no textbook, and always plan the way home.
Big ideas
- Work the problem yourself first: Johnson believed you should know how to solve a problem before you hand it to a computer.
- Work backwards from where you need to land: Johnson's favourite approach was to begin at the end.
- When there's no textbook, go back to basics: Space flight was new, and there were no books to look things up in.
- Ask questions, and ask to be in the room: Johnson was curious and asked a lot of questions.
- Trust the machine only after you've checked it: Johnson lived through the change from human computers to electronic ones.
- Plan the way home: Getting a crew up is half the job.
Hire Katherine Johnson for
- Checking a model or forecast: Verify the software's answer with an independent method.
- Planning backwards: Set the date or result you need, then work out when and how to start.
- Backup planning: A second plan for every main plan, tested too.
- Starting something new with no manual: Build your own guide from first principles.
- Getting into the room: Ask for the seat, the meeting or the credit you should have.
- Quality and accuracy work: Decide how many decimal places a job really needs.
- Learning to trust a new tool: Check it against careful work until it earns your trust.
- Career and confidence: Do your best work, know your worth, and pass it on.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- Katherine Johnson Biography, Margot Lee Shetterly, NASA
- Katherine Johnson, Wikipedia
- She Was a Computer When Computers Wore Skirts (interview, 26 August 2008), Katherine Johnson, interviewed by NASA Langley
- Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position (NASA TN D-233, September 1960), T. H. Skopinski and Katherine G. Johnson, NASA Technical Reports Server
- Katherine Johnson interview (AARP Bulletin, 2018), Katherine Johnson, interviewed by AARP
- Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician And An Inspiration For 'Hidden Figures,' Dies (24 February 2020), Russell Lewis, NPR, via WNYC
- Hidden Figures (2016 film), historical accuracy, Wikipedia
- The Orbital Behavior of the Echo I Satellite and Its Rocket Casing During the First 500 Days (NASA TN D-1366, June 1962; errata October 1962), Gertrude C. Westrick and Katherine G. Johnson, NASA Technical Reports Server