What math is on this huge blackboard, and is the setup just a joke?

[Chronos]

Personally, my guess would be ballistic missile calculations, since they seem to be working in a reference frame of the Earth.

But to add to what everyone else has said, there’s no reason for all of those engineers to be working on the same big board. If they’re working independently, then they could each be working on their own board, of a normal size and height. On the other hand, if all of their calculations are tying together serially, then they wouldn’t all be working at once, since each one would have to wait for the others to finish their relevant steps.

[Morgenstern]

It looks like they are about to prove that Pluto really is a planet. It’s about time.

[John_Mace]

@Derleth

And doesn’t all that math look rather elementary? It’s not that it’s wrong, but simplified, using nothing more complex than simple derivatives and algebra and the commoner trigonometric functions. It looks more like the math you’d do on a scrap of paper than the math you’d get a group of actual professionals to puzzle over.

I would’t expect orbital calculations to be particularly complex. They’re not doing theoretical physics here-- more like engineering.

[Munch]

@Donnerwetter

I would highly recommend not to look at this - very - disturbing picture:

The remains of the astronaut Vladimir Komarov, a man who fell from space, 1967 - Rare Historical Photos

Fascinating article:

The American astronauts requested the Soviet government to allow a representative to attend but were turned down.

The Space Race nearly defines the Cold War, but it’s amazing to see this comrades-in-arms mentality across borders. Both he and Gagarin’s actions are heroic by every definition.

Komarov demanded it personally because he wanted to send a message to the government officials who had caused his death. He knew the capsule was unsafe and that he would very likely die, he knew he would not be returning alive so he made the demand before launching. His final “revenge” was forcing his superiors to look at what they had done.

That’s badass.

[Senegoid]

@Chronos

On the other hand, if all of their calculations are tying together serially, then they wouldn’t all be working at once, since each one would have to wait for the others to finish their relevant steps.

I guess higher math doesn’t lend itself well to parallel processing.

[Marion_Wormer]

The spherical trigonometry on the lower left is a dead giveaway it’s some kind of orbital mechanics problem. I don’t even think they teach spherical trig anymore. Or how to use a slide rule. Gone away, gone away, the engineers of yesteryear.

[vd]

@CalMeacham

You’ve got coordinate transformation by rotation in the lower right written out in algebraic form instead of being done in matrix notation.

That’s correcting for the rotation of the Earth to convert from the inertial frame to Earth-fixed. That’s why it only has X & Y and no Z.

@CalMeacham

The "mu"s are used in electromagnetic calculations (in MKS units), so it could be orbital theory for elementary particles. But mu was also used as a symbol for reduced mass in planetary calculations. Without diging into it, I’d give the edge to gravitational orbital calculations.

In this case, mu is the gravitational parameter for the Earth.

@CalMeacham

It’s an old Life image, and they covered the Space Race in some detail. There’s absolutely no need to have six engineers crawling on ladders around a greenboard – it loks like a setup for the Life photographer at some NASA facility, or something.

Yeah, there would have been no reason to write out those known equations unless you were teaching or demonstrating them.

@Marion_Wormer

The spherical trigonometry on the lower left is a dead giveaway it’s some kind of orbital mechanics problem. I don’t even think they teach spherical trig anymore. Or how to use a slide rule. Gone away, gone away, the engineers of yesteryear.

I’m actually debugging some code with these equations right now. On Friday I got as far as noticing that my eccentric anomaly shouldn’t be 19 thousand and something radians.

A lot of these equationsshould look pretty similar.

[Chronos]

Quoth Senegoid:

I guess higher math doesn’t lend itself well to parallel processing.

Well, some of it does. Most of it, in fact. But in that case, they’d each be working at their own board.

[Civil_Guy]

Anecdote: In college, I well remember (still) the time I walked into the Engineering Economics classroom. Our rookie instructor was in front, looking kind of nervous, and in the back row was another of the engineering instructors, taking notes. Ahah, evaluation time.

As taught, the class had not been especially rigorous. If the benefit/cost ratio for a project is more than one, the project is a good one. Today, however…

Down one blackboard, on to the next one, fast, fast, fast. Partial derivatives, graphs, all the way. Complete mathematical proof that in classical micro-economics, that the production point where marginal costs equal marginal profits is the real sweet spot where profits are maximized. I think.

I don’t think anyone in the class was trying to keep up; it was pretty obvious what was going down. And no, none of the day’s lecture showed up on any exam for the course. But all quite humorous, in it’s way.

[mack]

When I saw the thread title, I thought it was going to have something to do with this scene out of A Serious Man:

[Ethilrist]

@Morgenstern

It looks like they are about to prove that Pluto really is a planet. It’s about time.

I thought it was about space…

[watchwolf49]

@vd

That’s correcting for the rotation of the Earth to convert from the inertial frame to Earth-fixed. That’s why it only has X & Y and no Z.

I was thinking it was all bogus because of the lack of the z co-ordinate. Even with that, shouldn’t all those differentials be partial?