How Einstein saved the GPS

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Thank you Telesfor sir

I'm a big fan of Albert Einstein. Many physicists would agree that his theories are the purest expression of genius in the history of humanity with all the ensuing applications. In this case, we talk about the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The GPS was developed by the US military in the middle of the Cold War in the 60s. It was originally used by the navy for navigational purposes. In a previous version, a ship could update the data on the position only once per hour. Over the following decades, the United States has continued to improve the system by launching more satellites. In the 80s, the Reagan administration decided to make available GPS technology for civilian purposes. The impetus for the solution was the Korean Airlines passenger plane shot down by the USSR in 1983, accidentally flying over the Soviet Union on its way from Alaska to Korea.The GPS system consists of 24 satellites flying around the earth in high orbit. These satellites travel at a speed of about 14.500 km per hour and their orbit is at an altitude of 19.000 kilometres. (For comparison, The orbital altitude of the International Space Station is about 400 kilometres). Each satellite has an atomic clock, the precision of which is about 1 nanosecondo. The satellites are distributed in such a way that from any part of the Earth's surface, at least four of them are in line of sight. A GPS receiver on the ground (or on an airplane in flight) It receives data about the time and location of these satellites using a radiofrequency signal 1,575 GHz.

Without the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein would not exist GPS. Ideas like crazy slow times at higher speed or bend a subject called four-dimensional space-time continuum by a massive object are crucial to the operation of the GPS. Instead of accurately measuring standing (and for the military, in inches) without taking into account of the theories of Einstein, You would be measured just in miles. But for an accurate indication of the path that is not enough. Within a very short period of time, such errors would accumulate and the entire system would become useless.The GPS receiver can calculate the distance to each satellite from the time taken by the radio waves that propagate at the speed of light. Knowing the exact distance of three satellites encoded within the signal and their position, the microprocessor of the receiver can determine its coordinates by means of trilateration. The trilateration is a more complex form of triangulation, which uses intersecting spheres to determine the location based on the distance from the other three points of the three-dimensional space. a fourth satellite is needed to verify backup and temporary fixes to a non-atomic receiver.

Measure the travel time of radio waves which propagate on these relatively short distances requires an extremely high precision. The GPS requires accuracy to within a few nanoseconds. And this requires an appeal to the special and general theory of relativity of Einstein. Special relativity regards objects moving at high speed, while the general relativity is a theory of gravity.

Einstein published his theory of special relativity in 1905 and forever changed our fundamental ideas about the universe. It showed that in contrast to Newton and common sense, the speed of light, and not the time or the distance, It is a truly universal constant. His theory states that while the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, time slows down in relation to the observer “immobile” on earth. I highlighted the word “immobile” in quotes, because in reality there is nothing Property, and right now we are moving on Earth, making revolutions around the sun in a galaxy which rotates in an expanding Universe

Nice written article dear!