The Global Positioning System or “GPS” is a technology that has been used for many years by the military. People now have the ability to use the same technology in there everyday lives from traveling from Ottawa to Vancouver or recovering a stolen vehicle to even tracking a criminal who is on probation and is restricted from certain areas. For instance, schools or other public places. The GPS also helps with finding a missing child using the GPS built into there cell phones. This has impacted our society a lot this is keeping children safe and dropping the car theft rate.

The GPS was invented in the early 1940’s and used radio navigation called LORAN this type of GPS was used in World War two to locate enemies. Then in the late 1950s the Soviet Union found a new way of locating where you were they could find the exact area where you are by measuring the frequency of the signal. They found that the frequency was higher as the satellite got closer and got lower as it moved away. With this information they could find the exact location of the satellite by measuring the Frequency and using this frequency to measure the distance from the satellite.

Today we have 25 satellites in space for our GPS’s so we can know where we are anywhere in the world which is great for hikers trying out a new path this can save them a lot of time when moving around a forest or a mountain. 4 signals are sent to the GPS in order to locate you.

The GPS was invented to help the military locate bases and enemy army’s that would be to dangerous to locate by foot or by air craft. Example the military of today using GPS to locate “weapons of mass destruction” or trying to locate a training base of an Iraqi army.

In 1983 a Soviet interceptor aircraft shot down a civilian airliner in restricted Soviet airspace and killed 269 people that were on the aircraft. After this incident Ronald Regan announced that everyone could own a GPS as soon as they were ready. Because of this mistake by the airliner we can all own a GPS not just the military.

The GPS is used by almost in every new gadget and car example On Star in your car. The GPS can locate your car if it is ever stolen, you can talk to an actual person and explain your problem to them example out of gas, need a tow truck and they will come out to where you are and help. These same people can also unlock your door from the building that they are in if you ever lock your keys into your car. This saves you time and means less damage to your car.

You can even get a GPS put into your pet and they could trace it where ever it is.

Also the elderly can get a special GPS that can connected to there body and it will monitor there health and if its drops to a dangerous level the GPS will send a signal to the watch which will beep and warn you when your heart rate it dropping dangerously. This saves many lives everyday.

Taxi drivers use a GPS everyday this help find quick or alternative routes to where they are trying to get there customer. For example: an accident down the street and trying to find an alternative route.

The Military uses GPS to target bases or building with high accuracy. The military first used GPS in World War 2 to get around with out running into people or enemy soldiers. With the new technology today we can see bases, people, cars, planes. Right now the military is using GPS to try and find Al-Qaeda bases around Afghanistan and Iraq.

Even with the GPS there are still problems like weather. The weather can affect a signal from a satellite and through it off. This causes problems for many people when traveling they miss an exit or the GPS tells them to turn at the wrong time.

The future GPS will be 3D and we will be able to see buildings and mountains and everything will be labeled every store and every building which can help for planning on the way to your destination which hotel your going to stay at or what you will have for supper. These things can change the world completely. This is almost like Google Earth a program which u can download off of google.com. This is very handy when traveling you can get a color map with satellite images or a basic black and white map.

The price for a GPS starts at 99.00 dollars and ends at 400.00 dollars. For your pets the GPS collar costs 400.00 dollars. The human GPS heart monitor costs about 300 $

The GPS is a great invention in technology. It saves lives just in the car with less people using a big map trying to find where they are well trying to drive then ending up in a car wreck. Then it can save your grandparents lives with the GPS monitor system or find your lost pet. The GPS can save many lives and is very handy when traveling I would recommend this because it’s so handy.