Jordan Zoellmer’s Comps Presentation
Monday, February 22nd
8:30 am in Olin 101
Location, Location, Location: The Background and Physics of the Global Positioning System
Where am I? How do I get from here to there? Today, our smartphones hold the answers to these historically challenging questions. But the solution extends beyond an map on a touchscreen and into space, where a constellation of satellites comprising the Global Positioning System orbits the earth, continuously transmitting navigational information encoded in microwave signals in order to be received and interpreted by users like you and I. Surprisingly, the first question physicists needed to answer was: what time is it? My comps presentation will explore the development, structure, and function of GPS, ultimately explaining how GPS allows users to find their position. Physics topics include Kepler’s laws of orbital motion, atomic clocks, waves, and relativity. Hopefully my presentation will illustrate that GPS is an immense scientific achievement comprising many important subjects in physics.