Four Popular Myths about GNSS

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Back to "GPS: The Present Imperfect"

Let’s take a look at that great work of contemporary English literature,
Dan Brown’s 2003 mystery, The Da Vinci Code.

We thrill as the evil Captain Fache uses a tiny GPS to track our unknowing
Hero and his Lady Friend as they explore an underground crypt far
beneath the Louvre in Paris.

That GPS is accurate to two feet. Now, this scene manages to combine in a
single paragraph four great myths concerning GPS:

1.    GPS is itself a tracking system that can tell those busybodies in
Whitehall just where we all are
2.    It works always and everywhere, even in mysterious underground
tombs.
3.    It has pinpoint accuracy
4.    It needs just a single satellite.

That’s a pretty good collection of errors for a book that purports to be
a revelation of truth, hidden from us for centuries.

No wonder people have infinite trust in GPS!

Copyright © 2010 Gibbons Media & Research LLC, all rights reserved.