Navigation by Numbers

For millennia, sailors navigated by measuring the angles between stars and the horizon with a sextant. Spherical trigonometry — the math of angles on a curved surface — turned those measurements into latitude and longitude, guiding ships across open oceans.

Today, GPS satellites use the same mathematical principles at electronic speed. Each satellite broadcasts its position and time. Your phone receives signals from at least four satellites and solves a system of equations to pinpoint your location within meters — celestial math made digital.