Today GPS devices that can determine where you are in the world have become ubiquitous.

In fact, there is a very good chance that the device you are using to listen to this

podcast has a GPS receiver in it.

GPS is used for a wide variety of applications all over the world.

It's been called the world's first global utility.

Learn more about the global positioning system, how it came to be and how it works on this episode of

everything everywhere daily. This episode is sponsored by Audible.

The audio book I would recommend which deals with today's subject is You Are Here from the compass to GPS the history and future of how we find ourselves by Hiawatha Bray.

The book covers the history of navigation from beacons, compasses, and maps and how satellite

navigation affects every aspect of our society.

You can get a free one month trial to Audible and to free audio books by going to audible trial

dot com slash everything everywhere or by clicking on the link in the show notes.

The history of satellite navigation dates back to the very first satellite, Sputnik 1.

The Sputnik satellite wasn't in orbit very long, but while it was there it had a radio beacon that you could hear from Earth.

Two American scientists William Geyer and George Wifenbach of the John Hopkins Applied

Physics Laboratory quickly figured out that they could determine the position of Sputnik

by measuring the Doppler shift of the radio signal it was sending out.

Soon scientists were wondering if they could do the opposite,

determine a person's location on Earth based on a signal received from satellite.

In 1960, they tested the first satellite navigation system called Transit, or Nav-Satt.

The initial goal was to provide location information to Polaris

Nuclear Submarines who needed location data to fire their missiles. Transit

...