Mr Inquisitive's Quest

To end the week on inspirational figures, Mr Inquisitive would like to introduce you to a lady who was also very inquisitive and a great lover of Maths. Her name is Katherine Johnson.

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Katherine Johnson 

Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician ​. She made important contributions to the United States space program during her career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Her work helped send astronauts to the Moon. Katherine was known as a 'computer'; she was a human calculator and questioned mathematical theories to help spaceships reach their destinations and return to earth safely. She was different to the other human computers and this was because she asked a lot of questions. 

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Katherine's life story is told in the clip below. Click on the link;
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGUNklkJt2s

Sending a rocket into space, is like throwing a ball into the air. At first, the force of the throw sends a ball up, up, up but as its energy runs out the ball starts to falls back down to the ground. Where the ball lands, depends on what angle the ball was thrown, how high and how fast it flew. Now, because Maths has its own language, Katherine could ask those questions; How high would the rocket ship go? How fast would it travel? She could answer these questions using numbers, which provided the all important answer to where would the spaceship land because it has to land in a specific spot - and safely because it has people inside. 

Maths is pivotol when sending a spaceship into space and due to Katherine's inquisitiveness and curiosity of Maths, in 1969 she helped Apollo 11 to get to the moon and then in 1970 she worked on the Apollo 13 mission. 

Being inquisitive is vitally important in our learning. We hope you remember the famous people Mr Inquisitive has introduced you to this week and let them be an inspiration to you. Like Albert Einstein said, "Question Everything!" 

Be inquisitive!