Hidden Figures: How These Women Cracked an Impossible Soviet Code
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
- In the 1940’s, the US government had a mission: find Soviet spies that had infiltrated their nuclear program. To do that, they needed to find a way to decode Soviet messages, notorious for being “unbreakable”. So they turned to the Venona Project. This group of talented mathematicians, consisting largely of women, went on to expose spies in nearly every agency in the federal government.
To solve the non-carrying addition equation, simply add each digit in the top row to the digit below it. If the value is greater than 10, subtract 10 from the result. Repeat for each column of digits.
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Chapters
00:00 The Soviet A-Bomb
00:54 The Venona Project's Dedicated Mathematicians
03:12 The First Clue
05:03 Book Breaking
07:08 The Infamous Rosenbergs
I think society tends to forget just how important women were to code breaking and computing. So much of the actual work was done by these brave, brilliant women! It's also no mistake that women were usually forced out of these jobs when they became higher paying and more prestigious
One of these women was Bill Nye’s mother. Read the book “Code Girls”.
Oh wow. Thanks for the book recommendation.
This reminds me of the Calutron Girls, young women who were trained to operate the machines used to enrich uranium at Oak Ridge, TN for the Manhattan Project. It was so secretive they weren't even told what they were producing, just how to do it. They got so good at it though that they even outperformed the scientists!
I'll add that the Rosenbergs were the first American civilians executed for espionage, and their sons are still alive and told their own stories from recollections of their childhood. I guess it's not super relevant to the video but one reason for pushback on the Rosenberg case was that they were Jewish, and Jewish organizations/activists were frequently (unfairly) under surveillance during the Red Scare.
And I'll add that they were guilty as hell.
@@symbol8246 ...Never said they weren't? Was adding context to the newspaper headlines.
A "sequel" to Hidden Figures could use this as a plot. It would be fascinating.
Thank you for covering this topic! I knew about the decryption efforts that led to the Rosenbergs' convictions, but never knew there were so many women involved. What a shame that the Project Venona women all seem to have passed without getting the recognition they deserved - I would love to see a movie like Hidden Figures on their work.
All brilliant women get buried in history, and some get burned to death by the church. Wonder whose fault??
Brotha, anyone ever mentioned that you could pass for a black wolverine? that afro/beard combo is dope.
I'd hate to see him with claws out -- but I can see where you're coming from!
His hair looks great! At least he's not bald.
Dope, I say.
Hey! Joel here. My nickname since 9th grade has been Wolverine, so yes, yes they have. 😅
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for making this informative video. It reminds me about the Women who helped made the calculations that helped Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to land on the moon.
~Mackyle Wotring
01749 The carry is the hard part, it is only seem easier because we are so used to it.
That’s what I got too
This reminds me of Bletchley Park, where British code breakers worked in secret to decipher Soviet codes. I first learned about it from the series “The Bletchley Circle”, in which four women reunite several years after WWII to solve a series of seemingly unrelated murders using their code breaking skills. I just looked it up and saw that there is also “The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco”, so I’ll have to check that out.
German codes
@@dncarac Thank you. I stand corrected.
Saw both series and like it .
@@lasandralucas7314 I checked out the San Francisco one from my library. I wish it lasted longer than one season but I’m sure it’s a challenge coming up with plot lines that don’t seem too far fetched.
01749 - Not interested in being a spy. Please don't ask.
More proof that women are great at math. There are probably many more stores like this about how women did a lot of the grunt work while men got the spot light.
I'm afraid that sexist folks would still use this as proof that the only thing women are great at is mindless repetitive grit while men excel at creativity. Sigh...
Do people not think women can be great at math? I mean, you're right about men getting credit for women's work, but never in my life have I heard someone say women are bad at math.
@@PhoenicopterusR Not sure if you are being sarcastic/joking, but yes, that was a very typical stereotype for a while, but it may have gotten better in the past 10 years or so. It probably depends on where you are, too.
@ZedaZ80 I'm not joking. I've literally never heard that stereotyoe, so that's interesting to learn. Growing up, the top students in pretty much every subject were majority the girls, and our high school valedictorian was a girl most of us had known since 1st grade. Plus, the only times we'd had a male maths teacher were the 3 years in middle school.
Suppose for context, we'd all been stuck in the same group from 1st to 12th grade due to the very limited options for immersion classes.
@@PhoenicopterusRThat women were bad at math was a common stereotype when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s.
You'd think that Ethel's own brother would do his best to try to save her and to downplay her involvement in the espionage. Instead, he did just the opposite. He threw her under the bus to save his own neck.
Or his wife's neck. He supposedly said that his wife was more important than his sister.
He AND his wife were both Soviet spies, and when asked about it decades later he admitted he lied, but said it was his wife or Ethel and that he would do it again. So of the two couples only Ethel was innocent.
One of the many reasons I am opposed to the death penalty.
Every time I hear one of these stories, I wonder how many more are out there for each one we do know. Likely to be a pretty scary ratio, and a disappointing one, as we can't recognize many of the people involved in their lifetimes.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and the Single Ladies were the OG (De)coders.
Not impossible since, you know the broke the codes. The only code not broken during WW2 were the Navajo in the US military
The irony!!!!! Truly, the gods make jokes of men😂😂😂😂
This is fascinating stuff -- especially since my step father served in the Army Security Agency in the 1970s.
I didn't know that much about the Rosenbergs and what I did confused me if was the Red Scare or if they were really spies. Thanks for this. I didn't know I need to study about the topic more until this.
Verona transcripts proved there were Soviet spies in the government, and the Rosenthals were spies.
I'm not succumbing to this American conspiracy to make me do math on my own free liberated time 😂/jk. Thank you for this video! This took me on a journey down the internet research rabbit hole and resulted in a couple documentaries and books I need to watch/read now, and I think they would be well worth it! Please never stop inspiring us to learn more about history ❤
Any chance you'd share those links?
Awesome as always thanks
01749?
That's correct
@@alexshrier3027 thank you, I suck at math so I appreciate the check
IMO: Correct!
Unless the instructions are very unclear that is correct.
I like to think nobody sucks at math, it is a skill like any other that just takes practice. Even professionals have their papers reviewed be fellow peers for mistakes are possible by anyone.@@ExoticTerrain
Well done!!
The costuming and scenery are perfect
I grew up in Santa Fe, NM next to the bridge that allegedly the Rosenbergs gave nuclear secrets to the Russians underneath. But that happened before I was born and under an older version of the bridge as well. The current bridge looks too modern.
Keep up the good work 💯
Thank you
Would non-carryover addition be like 75+25=90? Don’t carry the one from the 5+5 and only add the 7+2 in the tens column?
Wow 😳
I'd heard of the Rosenbergs, but was not aware that Ethel was charged and executed on shaky grounds. Yikes. Yet another person unjustly given capital punishment.
01749 is the anser I came up with for the question at the end
01749 id rather make the gadgets than spy thanks.
Arlington Hall? Home of DIA?
@9:34 -- 01749 The description instructions should say "if the value is 10 or greater" not "greater than 10". Also, the rest is too poorly explained. I would just not add the 1/one that is "carried over" to the next row of integers/numbers.
Considering the similarities, I think a better title would have been more appropriate.
5:29 this doesn't seem right. There is no "the" equivalent in Russian, so he couldn't have decoded this in the messages in Russian. There are no articles in the Slavic languages.
In fact they didn't! They instead cracked a quite possible Soviet code.
What is this guy talking about not being able to do non-carrying addition and subtraction? That’s an elementary school math problem.
Could just be the terminology + context. I have no memory of hearing "non-carrying" in school, but I could certainly assume what it meant and do it.
The Rosenbergs did nothing wrong ❤❤
Depends on your point of view.
The Rosenbergs were evil commie spies