GPS is an acronym for global positioning system, a network of 24 to 32 satellites that orbit the earth twice every hour. As these satellites orbit, they emit time-encoded geographical signals as a beacon to any GPS device on earth that can see them. A GPS device then uses these signals to triangulate its position anywhere on the planet. The more satellites and signals a device can receive a signal from, the more accurate the location will be. We will get into more details about GPS triangulation and accuracy in Chapter 4, Spawning the Catch.
The following diagram shows a GPS device acquiring a signal from visible satellites on the network:
GPS Device tracking visible satellites
This is a list of terms we may come across when talking about or using GPS on a device:
Datum: It is a term used in GPS to define the coordinate transformation system used to convert those satellite signals into usable coordinates. All GPS devices use WGS 84 as the standard, which is convenient for...