I recently watched a couple movies based on true stories about mathematical geniuses making a huge difference in our world.

#1. Hidden Figures, tells the story of several black women in the 1960’s who were hired as “computers” by NASA. That is, these people were very good with numbers and could do calculations with amazing accuracy and speed. NASA engineers relied on them to solve problems which would take the engineers so long that it would use up valuable time. So they hired this group of women to do the somewhat mundane work of crunching the numbers and coming up with the final solutions.

One of the brightest of the human “computers”, Katherine Johnson, became recognized for her brilliance and her accuracy in solving complex scientific problem. John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth, insisted that this woman’s calculations be used in planning his mission. There had been a disagreement between her figures and those of some of the lead engineers. As it turned out, her numbers were the correct ones, and Glenn successfully orbited and returned to earth.

Computing machines were in their infancy during this time frame, the early 1960’s. One of the women in this group, Dorothy Vaughan, became quite fascinated by computers and the language used by the machines. She taught herself computer language and would then sneak into the computer lab to run programs she was writing. She became so good at it that eventually, when she was “found out” she became a key component in the effort to place a U.S. man on the moon.

When I was in junior high, Grade Nine, I believe, I took a class titled, “Air Age Science”. In this class we learned about how accurate calculations needed to be for successful space launches. For example, we are talking about fractions of a degree for reentry angles. When watching this movie, I became completely impressed with how this was done by human “computers”. In today’s world, all these calculations would be quick and easy with modern computers. But in the early 1960’s, these computing machines were in extreme infancy; they couldn’t even come close to the computing power we today hold in our hands. These women were truly amazing.

Their story includes some significant turning points in the segregation of the time. For example, Katherine was asked at one point by the lead engineer, Al Harrison, (played by Kevin Costner) why she was gone from her desk for up to half an hour. Turns out, she had to run (in the high heels of the time) clear across the science complex in order to use the washroom. She would take papers with her so she could continue problem-solving while on these trips. When Al Harrison hears of this dilemma, he takes a sledge-banner to the segregated washroom signs!

In the “extras” section, after watching the movie, there is a story of Katherine Johnson’s subsequent life. A NASA building was named after her. This “extra” shows her in a wheelchair, in her 90’s, receiving the acclaim.

#2. The Imitation Game, tells the story of Alan Turing. This story takes place two or three decades prior to the Hidden Figures story. Again, it is based on the true-life experience of a mathematical genius. Turing was a “different” child. I think in today’s world he would be labelled autistic. His social skills were stiff and mechanical. But his brilliance with numbers was recognized early.

He was hired by the British military to work on a project trying to decipher the German code machines named “Enigma”. This work of course, had to be done under extreme secrecy. The Enigma code was considered unsolvable by all the top people in Britain, France and the U.S. Turing said, during his interview, (at least in the movie!) “Well, let me try, and then we’ll know for sure!” He was completely confident in his mathematical abilities.

When he came into the team working on the Enigma problem, he very shortly demanded more control over the working of this team. He immediately fired some of the members; and very quickly he asked for, and reluctantly received, 100,000 pounds with which to build a machine to solve the code. He successfully built this machine, with a number of episodes of near-defeat. The authorities wanted more immediate success and threatened to shut the project off several times. His commanding officer had to be prevailed upon to protect Turing’s work. And eventually they were successful, building a mechanical computing machine involving dozens of rotating discs.

But then they were faced with the dilemma of what to do with the information. If they immediately began thwarting German maneuvers the Germans would know they’d successfully solved Enigma. So they had to proceed carefully with the new-found information, including allowing some German successes. One powerful scene in the movie shows one such action, where a brother of one of the members of the Turing’s team was on a ship. The team had deciphered that u-boats were all heading toward that ship and would sink it. The information they had would have allowed the British military to out-maneuver the Germans and save this ship, which had many lives on board. But they did not relay the necessary intelligence to the higher-ups and the ship was sunk.

A complicating factor in the life of Alan Turing was that he was gay, in an age when homosexuality was a crime. Following the war, this information came out, and he was faced with the decision to either give up his computing machine or submit to 2 years of hormonal “therapy” to “cure” his homosexuality. He could not give up his machine, so submitted to the “therapy”. This destroyed his life; after one year of the hormones, he committed suicide. It was 1954; he was 41 years old.

His work, the machines he invented, became known for years as “Turing Machines”, before they were known as “computers”. He is considered by many to be the main force behind the invention of today’s modern computers.

Historians consider the work of Turing’s team to have shortened the war by at least two years, and to have saved tens of thousands of lives.

The British government, in 2009, apologized for the way Turing was treated in the 1950’s as a homosexual. In 2013 the Queen granted a pardon for his “crime”.

Because so much of the Enigma work was done in secret and highly classified, a lot of Turing’s contributions were not recognized until many years later. But today he is held in high regard for his contributions to today’s technology.

I highly recommend watching either one of these movies. Both are top-notch productions, and tell stories we all need to hear and remember.