Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a woman paid 25 cents an hour as a 'human computer' at Harvard Observatory, discovered that Cepheid variable stars have a precise mathematical relationship between their pulsation period and intrinsic brightness, which became the fundamental tool for measuring cosmic distances and enabled Edwin Hubble to prove the universe is expanding.
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The Underpaid Woman Who Measured the Universe #shorts #history #factsAdded:
She was paid 25 cents an hour to count stars in photographs at Harvard.
Then she discovered how to measure the entire universe. Henrietta Swan Leavitt was hired as a human computer, one of the women paid less than janitors to do calculations no man wanted to do.
Studying blinking stars called Cepheids, she found a hidden mathematical pattern.
Her formula let astronomers calculate the distance to galaxies for the first time. Edwin Hubble used it to prove the universe was expanding.
She died before anyone gave her credit.
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