Context
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is not only for navigation. Modern technology depends on it for telling time.
What is GPS?
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system. The GPS (Global Positioning System) is a “constellation” of approximately 30 well-spaced satellites that orbit the Earth and make it possible for people with ground receivers to pinpoint their geographic location.
How does GPS work?
- A GPS receiver calculates its position by a technique called satellite ranging, which involves measuring the distance between the GPS receiver and the GPS satellites it is tracking.
- The Global Positioning System, or GPS, uses passive range-finding technology to pinpoint your exact position on the globe by calculating the time it takes for a pulse from its satellites to reach your receiver.
Need for GPS
- Today, timeliness is core to everything we do.
- Existence of a common and coordinated system of telling time.
- Many of the complex networked technologies that we take for granted today depend on precisely synchronized time to function.
- Most modern technologies depend on having a single precise system of telling time—that works everywhere.
- GPS is the most accurate, perfectly synchronized timing system on the planet—that is, to boot, accessible, free of cost, from anywhere on earth.
- Due to the accuracy of GPS technology, along with improvements in GPS technology applications, we are starting to see industries such as automotive, light air, marine navigation, surveying, mapping, environmental research, and now construction applications.
Use of GPS Technology
- Efficient delivery of products and materials
- Equipment maintenance
- Getting to meetings in unfamiliar locations
Conclusion
GPS systems certainly are becoming more and more prevalent in their application with daily advancements in the technology. GPS is an increasingly influential product, both in our personal and business lives, and new products will continue to be developed and fine-tuned to help us do our work faster and more efficiently.
