How does a phone track GPS?
Down to earth technology
How does your phone know where you are, and how to take you to the nearest Papa Johns?
Satellite tricks
Since the year 1994, 30+ Satellites orbit the Earth twice a day. During their travels, the satellite sends signals down to Earth. A GPS receiver takes this information in from all the satellites and calculates the exact location by comparing the time the information was sent and the time it was received at.
Location coming to a dimension near you!
In order to provide correct 2D coordinates via latitude and longitude, you need the signal from at least 3 satellites. If there’s 4 or more available, you can get altitude for a 3D position on Earth.
In the signal beam
Information is sent signaled to your device at 1575.52 Mhz. This includes orbital position data, the date and time, and a pseudorandom code that identifies the satellite. Most importantly sent, is the portion of the GPS signal used to calculate a position.
How accurate is it?
The majority of these outputs vary within 15 meters (49.21 feet) of your actual location
