Global Positioning System

1517 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of global positioning systems

Global Positioning System

Wouldn’t it be great if you could be sure that you would never be lost again? That you would know exactly where you were at all times, whether at land, air, or sea. Well, that is possible with modern technology. More specifically, that is possible with the help of GPS, the Global Positioning System. GPS is a navigational tool that has recently become extremely popular because of it wide range of uses. Whether you are a fisherman or an avid traveler, you could find some use for GPS. And with GPS becoming more and more affordable, it won’t belong until everyone is using it.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed by the US Department of Defense in hopes of providing the military with a precise form of worldwide positioning. This twelve billion dollar project resulted in the creation of 24 satellites, each with its own base station, that orbit the Earth. Using these satellites, the GPS is able to pinpoint positions accurate to the nearest meter, or sometimes even centimeter. Needless to say, this system has changed the face of modern day navigational techniques. So, how does it work?

The basic concept behind understanding GPS is a technique called “triangulating.” By using this technique, we can pinpoint any place on Earth by using only three different satellites. More specifically, we would want to use our distance from these three satellites. Hypothetically speaking, say we measured our distance from one satellite to be 10,000 miles. Our position would be narrowed down to a point on the surface of a sphere, centered on the satellite, with a radius of 10,000 miles. Now, say that the next measurement is 11,000 miles from another satellite and we imagine a similar sphere....

... middle of paper ...

...ave some problems that have yet to be worked out. GPS is constantly being tweaked and improved. With innovations such as Differential GPS, this technology has a very promising outlook. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself using GPS in some form in the very near future.

Works Cited

How GPS Works: An Introduction:

http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/gpswork.txt

Global Positioning system overview, Dana, Peter. H. http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html 1994

GPS Tutor – Introduction,

http://www.mercat.com/QUEST/Intro.htm 1998

GPS Tutor – Error,

http://www.mercat.com/QUEST/Error.htm 1998

Trimble – All About GPS: www.trimble.com

Show More
Related

  • The GPS, The Pacemaker, And The Positioning System

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    The invention of the GPS started with Dr. Ivan Getting leaving his position at Raytheon Company, and armed with the knowledge of what was at the time the most advanced navigational technology in the world, they began developing the Global Positioning System. He, Roger L. Easton, and Bradford Parkison began in the 60’s with a constellation of 24 satellites (placed in six orbital planes) orbiting the earth at a very high altitude (about

    Read More

  • Hammerhead Sharks

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    on this built in compass sense to guide them in the open ocean. Another use for

    Read More

  • Using GPS to Track a Particular Person

    3329 Words  | 7 Pages

    Although this service sounds quite convenient and has its obvious benefits, there are other issues to be considered. For example, many ethical dilemmas that play from privacy issues. In a world when at one time you could take a walk to remove yourself from the eye of another, we not may be under constant supervision of sorts. Tracking devises are easily placed in many things, cell phones, which are used by nearly all people in today's American society, are the recent and most wide spread target for GPS. Is it ethical to track someone through an everyday devices such as a cell phone, is tracking people ethical in itself? These are the questions that must be resolved before we can celebrate the positives of such technological advancements.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Cellular Tracking

    2219 Words  | 5 Pages

    GPS systems in earlier history, were primarily used by the military branches of our government to compete with other nations we had been fighting against. At the time, many people were trying to make that technology accessible to the public living in the United States. The idea of adding a GPS inside of a cell phone came to reality briefly before the year 2000. From then on, the GPS technology in cellphones has sophisticated in such a way never imaginable. A lot of good has come from this technology, but there has also been a lot of bad that has come from it as well.

    Read More

  • potato paper

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ireland in the years 1845-1852 a great famine caused a mass die off of potato crops throughout the country. Beginning in 1845 the weather in Ireland were abnormally chilly and damp for a summer season in Ireland, providing the perfect type of whether to allow diseases to spread rapidly. Phytophthora infestans, the cause of the great famine, can spread in the blowing wind. Shortage of food caused many Irish people to immigrate to other countries yet, some citizens of Ireland stayed most of which became struck will illnesses or died of starvation. Many farmers consolidated their land and shared the harvested crops creating another shortage of food for consolidated farming families. Potatoes originated from South America. . In the 1800s Ireland’s population grew immensely so, lands owners did not own more than a couple of acres for only themselves.

    Read More

  • Irish Potato Famine

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early 1800s life in Ireland wasn’t easy, Irish citizens got by day to day by farming and relying on the potato. The potato was their main source of food and money. With out the potato the Irish would have nothing. No one was prepared for what was about to happen in 1845, the beginning of the Great Irish Potato Famine.

    Read More

  • Amputation: Deliberate Surgical Removal of a Part of The body

    1502 Words  | 4 Pages

    Murray, C. D. (2009). Amputation, prosthesis use, and phantom limb pain an interdisciplinary perspective. New York: Springer.

    Read More

  • Phantom Limbs Research Paper

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    50%-80% of amputees suffer from phantom pain, which is the feeling that an amputated limb is still attached to your body and is in agonizing pain. (Phantom Limb Pain, 2017) Not everyone who has an amputated limb suffers from mental complications, but there is always a possibility that something arises. A study approved by the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) said that three of their five patients “reported superior vitality and mental health. However, the third patient of this group described a reduced social functioning and the fifth patient substandard general health.” The two patients who had problems suffered from problems such as the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance/hope) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Amputee Phantom Limb Pain Relief and Pain Management Testimonials, 2017). On the website Farabloc, amputee victims can talk with others about their difficult experiences in overcoming adversities like phantom knee pain and receive authentic information and advice about what it is like living with the condition. One person explained what phantom pain is like, describing it as “...generally occurring in the end and back of my stump, and consists of pins and needles, burning, itching type of pain…” (Amputee Phantom Limb Pain Relief and Pain Management Testimonials,

    Read More

  • World Systems

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    The world history does not always go in the same route. Change in the balance of power all around the world and existence of big events such as the foundation of press are effective in the conversion of the way it goes. With the effect of these rotations, systems are also changing. The world system between 600 and 1500 is not same with the system after 1500. This differentiation in system at that time was related to the exploration of America. After the big geographical explorations, a new Euro-centric world system emerged.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Altruism For Organ Donation

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Previously organ donation has encountered organ donors and organ supply rejections. Organ donation challenges and demands decreased as the organ shortages increase over the years. Organ donation mission is to save many terminally ill recipients at the end stages of their lives, the significance of organ donation is to give back to restore one’s quality of life. The ongoing issues may present an idealistic portrait of how these issues may be resolved. As a result organ donation mission is to restore organs for their patients and to promote, education, to empower altruism, and quality ethics as a resource for existing and potential donors. Organ donations have been perceived by potential organ donors

    Read More

  • The Doctrine of Salvation

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    There was a time a person would use a roadmap to get from one location to another. Some also would stop and ask for directions. Today, you seldom see paper maps and people stopping at a local gas station for directions. Many vehicles come with a navigation system that provides a real-time map of the vehicle’s current location as well as systematic directions to requested destination.

    Read More

  • Global Positioning System (GPS)

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    GPS is a system of satellites radio-transmitters that orbit the planet in great numbers; their purpose is to be able to pinpoint the exact location of an individual or any type of vessel that is equipped with a receiver transmitter within a very small radius. GPS navigation has had a great impact upon society in general as well and its commercial and military applications. Global Positioning is made available at no cost to anyone who has a GPS receiver unit anywhere on the planet. A GPS unit is able to give the user longitude/latitude information as well as, altitude, traveling speed, distance traveled, distance remaining and time in any type of weather conditions imaginable.

    Read More

  • Smart Car Technology

    1124 Words  | 3 Pages

    where you are, and the navigation system makes it impossible to get lost in the

    Read More

  • Essay On Autonomous Cars

    3846 Words  | 8 Pages

    The GPS is sensing knowledge to help with navigation with the car and destinations. Autonomous cars are not yet available on a large scale of the world such as out of the United States of America, but have been programmed and developed to travel along the roads of America. Most autonomous cars are programmed only for American roads, we have made a big step towards the future with autonomous cars, with them being only available mainly in America, they are a luxury. They are making their way to larger scale autopilot features, and will eventually be available on a larger scale.(Ali

    Read More

  • World Geography

    310 Words  | 1 Pages

    Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.

    Read More

More about Global Positioning System

Open Document