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Hopper clock12/7/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Her grandfather had been in the Navy, and she wanted to follow in his footsteps. When World War II started, Grace tried to join the Navy, which had just started accepting women. Eventually, she became a math professor at Vassar College. She went on to get a PhD in math at Yale in 1934. She graduated with degrees in math and physics in 1928. She tried again, and was able to start college the next year at seventeen. But, just as she had done with the alarm clocks, Grace didn’t quit trying after one failure. Grace worked hard in school, and was almost able to start college when she was sixteen! Why almost? Her test scores in math were very high, but her scores in Latin were too low. If you look around, you’ll notice these shapes, along with angles, lines, curves, and other things that can be described with numbers, in many things you see every day. This is a fun way to use math – try to see what you can draw some time just using the basic shapes like circles, squares, and triangles. Grace especially loved math and geometry. This was not common for girls in the early 1900s. He encouraged her and her sister to get as much education as they could so they could support themselves. Grace’s father also supported Grace’s curiosity. Her mother wasn’t exactly happy about all the alarm clocks in the house being broken, but she was understanding, and she let Grace keep one clock to study. So she took one apart! But looking at the pile of gears, springs, and hands, in front of her, she still wasn’t sure.Įventually, Grace took apart all seven alarm clocks, trying to figure out how all the tiny, complicated pieces worked together. Grace was fascinated by the alarm clocks, and wanted to know how they worked. This kind of ringing was impossible to sleep through! If you imagine what an old-fashioned fire alarm might sound like, it would be similar to that. When the alarm rang, a small hammer would go back and forth, quickly hitting the bells and making a loud, high-pitched ring. These were old-fashioned clocks with gears in them and two bells on top. This was the early twentieth century, so these weren’t the kind of alarm your parents might have on their phone, or even a digital alarm clock. Each of the seven bedrooms in the house had an alarm clock, and every evening, Grace’s mother would set each alarm clock. Her family had a large summer home, which they shared with her many cousins. Grace was born and raised in New York City, and she was a very curious child. If so, don’t feel bad about yourself! You have something in common with some of the smartest and most innovative people in history, including the subject of today’s episode, Grace Murray Hopper. Has your curiosity ever gotten you in trouble? Maybe you took something apart or made a mess while you were trying to find out how it worked, or maybe you’ve asked a grown-up a question they didn’t know how to answer. ![]()
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