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Northamptonshire's part in the space race

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by raundsgirl (U2992430) on Saturday, 16th April 2011

  Now that it's the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, there may be some of you out there who don't know about the cutting edge tracking work that was going on at the time in this, the most widely ignored county in England.
  This group knew of a new Russian launch site before the Americans. They advised 'Flight' magazine and issued news to Reuter.
  They were the Kettering group; boys (and a few girls) plus two teachers from Kettering Grammar School. Their equipment was home made. They didn't even have a computer until the '70s, using slide rules and log tables until 1964, then the Elliot 803 at the Co-op corset factory a few miles away.
  Read about them here:
  
  
  and
  
  
  A wonderful example of British amateur expertise at its best.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by CASSEROLEON (U11049737) on Saturday, 16th April 2011

  raundsgirl
  
  You remind me of a TV programme when an ignorant conspiracy theorist argued that the Americans could never have put a man on the moon because they did not have the computers to do the calculations. Those of us old enough remember that some of the greatest mathematical minds in the world were flown to Florida- but I wonder whether people are taught how to use a slide-rule these days?
  
  Cass

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by raundsgirl (U2992430) on Saturday, 16th April 2011

  When we told OH's cousin's boy about using a slide rule and books of log tables, he looked absolutely gobsmacked. He is pretty whizzy at maths, but could not envisage being without at least a calculator.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by CASSEROLEON (U11049737) on Saturday, 16th April 2011

  raundsgirl
  
  And I have been contesting with fascinating for three days, who believes that "The West" is still a "Civilized" culture... One has to wonder just how many generations we are away from one of those Star Treck scenarios when they found a population totally dependent upon technology over which they had no mastery only total dependence.
  
  Cass

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Sambista (U4068266) on Sunday, 17th April 2011

  Cass.
  I'm not sure we haven't already reached it.
  A few years ago, a local supermarket suffered a power cut, whilst open and full of shoppers. They tried to throw them out, but the customers resisted - in the end, to avoid a riot, the staff were reduced to estimating "I think there's about Β£20 quids worth in your trolley" and accepting the customer's counter-offer "There can't be more than Β£15 quids worth", because, without a scanner, it was more or less impossible to price the stuff.

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by CASSEROLEON (U11049737) on Sunday, 17th April 2011

  Ur-lugal
  
  Our son who works in a shop has at least some of his younger sister's mathematical ability and is quite proud of his mental arithmatic- though this is a music shop and he does not have shopping trollies to add up.. But he regularly comments on his customers being totally nonplussed when he just tells them the figures that he has worked out in his head, and demand to watch him doing everything on a calculator.
  
  I must confess, however, that I have become too much into the supermarket shopping habit that I do not always bother to work out a quick "ball-park" figure estimate for roughly what the bill should be.. Technology I fear may yet turn us all into Daleks- if we live too long.
  
  Cass

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• Message 7

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  Posted by Sambista (U4068266) on Sunday, 17th April 2011

  Cass - I normally know to within about 10p how much the damage is - and I always check the till receipt. Uncannily, almost all the errors are in the store's favour ....

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• Message 8

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  Posted by CASSEROLEON (U11049737) on Monday, 18th April 2011

  Ur-lungal
  
  That is what I aspire to do.. though my weekly Tesco shop is more or less the same every week and any deviation from the normal total is quickly accounted for by extra items.
  
  I believe that our daughter, who is an Actuary and who therefore works with computer programmes all day, similarly has a mental idea of what kind of figures the programmes should be coming up with. For several years she marked mathmatical papers in the actuarial examinations in which candidates are required to "do it on paper".
  
  But people seem to regard being "independent" as a right these days rather than a challenge, duty or obligation.. As you infer customers get the goods and services they deserve- much like their politicians and governments- when they fail in their duty of "keeping them to account".
  
  [I have just watched Cameron and Reid on AV and this idea that somehow there would be an easier mechanism by which the apathetic majority could just elect a disparate collection of those who are interested in politics to sort things out amongst themselves- as usually happens in coalitional compromises]
  
  Cass
  
  

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• Message 9

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  Posted by Sambista (U4068266) on Monday, 18th April 2011

  AV? As far as I can see, it favours the "big boys" and makes life harder for anyone who thinks, speaks, and campaigns, for themselves.
  
  I bought a coffee yesterday in one of the popular chains of coffee shops. Got the wrong change (40p light, of course), and it took "Havva niceday" a good two minutes to understand what was wrong, and what to do about it.

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