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. [5:02]

Concepts

gps

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Additional Tags

global positioning system, ted ed: how does your smartphone know your location?, satellite, global positioning system gps

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 3 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)
• The intended use for this resource is Instructional|practice