Bits & Pieces: Numbers Are Important

by Paula Johnson

Ah yes, John Mooy, numbers, numbers everywhere! 

It’s, also, amazing how we can still recall numbers from the past, like an old phone number. However, John, we HAD to remember phone numbers because we had no speed dial or contacts list then. Before word prefixes (ours became DI-ckens), my childhood phone number was 5-5444.

I didn’t go to school in Marcellus, but Curt did, and he remembers Ruth Cobb’s high school math classes fondly. Actually, John, I rather liked algebra (the answer is x=5) and even enjoyed trigonometry, but I couldn’t keep those geometry theorems straight and chemistry was torture.

I, too, count steps for going up or down levels at home. There is something about knowing numbers that seems comforting.

Our lives appear to run and depend upon numbers more now that even when we were kids. Technology is totally backed up with numbers we don’t even see. In the 1950s-1970s, COBOL and FORTRAN were a couple of predominate programming languages for computer people to learn.

COBOL is still around as are Java, JavaScript, Swift and others. In a previous life, I first learned to use a computer on an Apple – very user friendly. I loved it. Then I changed jobs and felt like I reentered the world during the Dark Ages. My desk computer used DOS – a very early Microsoft. A root canal was more fun.

Though I can’t say that numbers are fun – I really prefer words – but understanding numbers sure can make life today much easier.

Can’t say if it was on a program or a commercial, but recently on the TV screen there was a view of a wall sized blackboard filled with numbers and equations (maybe it was Young Sheldon, now that I think of it). It reminded me of scenes in the movie, Hidden Figures, about the women mathematicians during the Race to Space period.

Having read the book as well as seeing the movie has given me a more lasting impression of these women. One of the more powerful points of the story concerned John Glenn and one of these mathematicians.

As the episode goes, as a former Marine test pilot, John Glenn coveted going to space. He pushed himself to great limits in order to become an astronaut through delay after delay – never losing focus on the prize or the means to the result. Though computers for and on spacecraft were of the highest quality and standards, people, many believed were more credible. They could be questioned and challenged. Thus, humans were the ultimate trust.

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For some people numbers are life and death.

This concept reminds me of my brother, John. As teens, I would sit and pour over math equations writing out the process. John could look at the problem and “see” the answer.

An example is a time John had to enter a supervisor’s office (a construction site trailer). Several  engineers and the supervisor were poised over a stretched-out blueprint. John asked his question of the supervisor, and then inquired about their problem.

They were trying to determine the proper locations for certain foundation points for a large building. These needed to be strategically/numerically placed for load, support, etc. John looked and then pointed out the proper locations and gave the numerical reasoning for each point.

They were amazed. He was correct. He had the uncanny ability to “see” numerically. I thought of John’s episode when that horrible accident occurred with the high-rise collapse in Miami. Someone needed John to check out their blueprints before construction.

Numbers are important. So, too, are words. A number or a word incorrectly used or placed can lead to a disaster that might not be easily, quickly, or ever be corrected. Thanks, John Mooy for tickling my memory.