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To: ConservativeMind
Why does the “week” affect GPS location?

GPS devices determine their location by calculating the distance from multiple GPS satellites based on the time of arrival of timestamped messages. So, if you were really far away from one or more of the satellites relative to the others, then in theory their timestamped packets could arrive with a time difference more than a few seconds.

Of course that can't actually happen in normal circumstances since the entire set of GPS satellites is close together in earth orbit.

But it is possible that some extraterrestrials with a super sensitive GPS receiver that have a black hole between us and them could see radically different apparent path lengths to their receiver. No doubt they would figure out the discrepancy and not get lost on the way to Galactiburger in their hovercars.

20 posted on 02/14/2019 11:15:04 AM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: freeandfreezing
... packets could arrive with a time difference more than a few seconds.

That sounds like a lot... Quick back-of-napkin calculation: The maximum distance difference between you and 2 satellites is approx. 1 Earth radius, or 6000km. Radio waves travel at 300000km/s (ignoring atmosphere slow down) so the max packet delta time between 2 satellites is roughly 20ms.

33 posted on 02/14/2019 1:07:01 PM PST by mwilli20 (DJT, let's MAGA!)
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