pitosalas 's review for:

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt

5.0

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A great book, especially for someone in Computer Science. I learned the central role that women played in the early early history of the use of computers in Science. The story covers the founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the earliest experiments with rockets and rocket fuels were done in the USA. The original meaning of the word "Computer" was of a person (and in JBLs case, always a woman) who did the calculations needed for the design of rockets, rocket engines, rocket fuels, rocket trajectories, and on and on. And they weren't just adding and subtracting! No, they were advanced in math and calculus and literally solving equations needed to make these rockets work. A great book for anyone in the field.