How does your smartphone know your location?

Name: How does your smartphone know your location?
Uploaded: 2019-04-05T19:56:11Z
Duration: 4 min 48 s
Description: GPS location apps on a smartphone can be very handy when mapping a travel route or finding nearby events. But how does your smartphone know where you are? Wilton L. Virgo explains how the answer lies 12,000 miles over your head, in an orbiting satellite that keeps time to the beat of an atomic clock powered by quantum mechanics. [Directed by Nick Hilditch, narrated by Addison Anderson].

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Wilton L. Virgo |

TED-Ed

• January 2015

GPS location apps on a smartphone can be very handy when mapping a travel route or finding nearby events. But how does your smartphone know where you are? Wilton L. Virgo explains how the answer lies 12,000 miles over your head, in an orbiting satellite that keeps time to the beat of an atomic clock powered by quantum mechanics. [Directed by Nick Hilditch, narrated by Addison Anderson].