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Imagine having to read a map or
even worse having to ask somebody for directions. Today we ask siri, type into our phones, or just press a button and ask
the car for directions. What would
happen if GPS stopped working? Drivers would
be slowing down traffic, looking at street signs or stopping to read road maps. And how on earth would Uber ever know where
to pick us up?
Everything is based on GPS, from emergency services to containers
in ports, to factories, power grids and more.
It is estimated the cost of GPS crashing to be a loss of about 1
Billion per day.
The Global Positioning System consists of 24 satellites synchronizing
with time in such an exact degree of precision that when we ask our phones
for directions, it picks up signals from some of those satellites based on the
time the signal was sent and where the satellite was. If the clocks on those satellites are not
exact,our route will be off by miles.
Re-fold it back to the way it was
Not so long ago, before GPS, reading a road map was the only
way to get around. You can still find maps at some gas stations and rest areas. Maps are huge but fold down small enough to keep in the glove box.
Reading a Road Map
The
index on the map lists the names of all of the cities listed on the map in
alphabetical order and the corresponding location of each listing. Across
the bottom of a map there may be sections that are labeled A, B, C and on the left side of the map, the grids may be
labeled numerically. If a town’s location is described as B4 in the index, you
would look in the grid where column B and row 4 meet to find the town. When
using a map to navigate, locate your current location and your destination
first.
Source: BBC 50 things that made the modern
economy- GPS and Driving-test.org
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