"Go/No Go"

LowTide Morning - October 13, 2018

"Go/No Go"

Confession: I have a secret desire to be a race-car driver. Other than driving too fast, primarily on interstates, I'm a safe driver. Off the track, I mean interstate, there are many more twists and turns.

With extra caution, I drive David's truck to Atlanta. Old parking garages, like the one at Hurt Plaza, weren't built for modern-sized vehicles. I find it difficult getting in and out of tight spaces even with my compact car. I circle the parking levels going higher and higher to find a space big enough and at the best angle to safely park this big truck. Success—I find a spot that works.

I'm in and out of the Hurt Building in less than 15 minutes. I jump in the truck and carefully start inching out of the parking space. I have my eyes on the vehicle parked across the narrow aisle.

"Be sure to cut the wheel. You don't want to hit that car."

I look in my side view mirror and think I'm clear. I'm sure I'll clear the car—that part is true. The part that isn't true? David's truckbed flares out just behind the passenger door. I feel a slight jolt as I pass the concrete beam to my left. The beam dented the back side of the truck. "Geeze, Louise!

I was being cautious. I miscalculated.

Miscalculations can be painful: objects in the mirror are closer than they appear, or the flooding in the street is higher than you anticipated.

Katherine Johson calculated by hand trajectories for NASA. Brilliant. At times, I'm tempted to use my calculator to add 34 plus 46 but I refuse to succumb to that level of lazy. Perhaps it would be different if my life depended on it.

"Go/No Go" refers to a pass/fail test using two conditions the test is passed when the "Go" condition is met and the "No Go" condition fails. The most critical solution Ms. Johnson calculated for the Friendship 7 mission was the "Go /No Go" reentry point. Miss the mark and astronaut John Glenn would have disintegrated on reentry or deflected out of orbit.

I have decisions that feel like I'm calculating "Go/No-Go"—decisions that need just the right angle. Many decisions are good with close-enough approximations, rounding up, rounding down, "in the ballpark." Other decisions require closer calculation. Wisdom is knowing the difference.

It took Ms. Johnson hours of calculation and looking at the problem from different angles to find the "Go/No Go" for the Friendship 7 mission.

Why do students complain about studying mandatory mathematics, whining, "I'll never use this stuff!" What I would give to have Ms. Johnson's nimble mind and the ability to solve complex problems without a calculator. Fortunately, the concentration on STEM courses is opening minds and attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Now, to see brilliant thinking rightly applied to brilliant living. Go/No Go!

~ LowTide explorer, Carolyn Fjeran

[LowTide is an eclectic collection of discoveries and reflective writings.]