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Dr. Gladys West grew up in 1930s VA. She had limited opportunities as a black girl in the south, but went on to become a mathematician.

In the 1950s, West helped program the Naval Ordnance Research Calculator. Later, she worked on modeling the shape of the Earth & helped develop satellite geodesy models, a foundation of GPS.

West was not formally credited for her work until 2018 when the VA General Assembly honored her contributions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_West #HistoryRemix #history #science

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

*Ordnance. I.e., weapons.

An ordinance is a by-law; I don't suppose the Navy needs to research or calculate them so often.

When I started on a programming project for the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (i.e., that island's mapping agency) the product manager was very clear that we *would not* get these two words confused. 😉

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

And she probably had to run two blocks from her desk to find a bathroom she could use.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I did a lot of GPS work. I was using Dr. West's foundational work frequently and didn't think about where it came from.

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