한국어로 읽기 Time to Find Your Way

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Try it with your phone

Use your own phone to pin where you are right now on the globe

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Try it with your phone

Now it’s your turn. Tap the button above and allow location access, and the spot your phone works out for you right now gets pinned on the globe. The accuracy shown with it tells you how many meters your real position is usually within. Outdoors under open sky it’s often a few meters; indoors it gets much bigger. Every scene of this story fits inside those few meters.

Why?Your browser mixes satellite signals with Wi-Fi and cell tower information to find you. That’s why it still works indoors, just less accurately. Outside, the satellite broadcasts come through clearly and the accuracy improves.

Learn moreThe yellow lines show the satellites that would be above you in this site’s example layout, not the real satellites’ positions. Real phones listen not only to American GPS but also to European, Russian, Chinese and other satellites, sometimes dozens at once. Your location is used only on this device; it is never saved or sent anywhere.

Pin it with your own phone
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textbook formulas

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More in the series

Orbits, distances and clock differences are calculated with textbook formulas (Kepler’s laws and simple forms of special and general relativity). The 30 satellites follow the real GPS layout but are not the real satellites or positions. In the 3D view, the satellite models are drawn huge and radio waves move far slower than in real life.