I'm thinking about GPS, and the problems with the technoledgy.

 

What are the technical ways of finding your current position on the earth?

 

Any idea welcome even imposible ones, I was wondering if the sun could be used.

 

Maybe combine the suns direction with the precise time, but how acurate?

 

but I suspect it's a little too imposible technicaly.

 

thoughts welcome.

 

P.S how do you spell check on these forums?

watch, OS map and maybe some binoculars.

weren`t Star Charts and sextants used a Long Long time back, they seemed to have worked perfectly fine, and let`s not forget the humble Compass either, the Sun`s great for telling the time of day, but it pre-suposses knowledge of your geographical position and season, beyound that, it`ll tell you where West and East is (roughly) and then by default North and South.

what`s wrong with GPS anyway? I have one here beside me, they work great

Thats only a small fear, it's not acurate enough.

 

My idea is to create an easy way for enthusasts to create maps using good software and hardware solutions where the data collected can be easyly combined into open maps (non copyright or open liecenced), you know so maps can be used by everyone without restrictions.

 

ok so what you need is two devices which know which way is north (compus, some sort of elecrtical version), know which way is down (so some sort of gradiant sensor) and where the other device is and how far away it is.

 

so the idea is you set both devices down and (prob via radio) they describe a line between themsevles, which is recorded maybe on a third device (laptop), you then move one of the devices further up the road and plot a second line.

 

All the while recording, perhaps into an svg, then you can have some tools which can take the raw data and allow you to select sections to add road names/place names to, combine with prevous maps in a way which can show changes ect and publish the new recordings online.

 

now that I think about it, perhaps it dosn't require any kind of positioning, or maybe it just requires one or two readings in which it can place one of the map points (so that all the other points can simple hang off that point) it makes updating data far easyer and less technical ability. and somthing that this would require is for it not to be dificult to use.

 

thoughts as always welcome.

 

P.S please ignore the spelling mistakes, I'm not stupid just not lexicly proficiant.

yes well if civilization collapses and the gps satelites fall from the sky the little box ain't going to do you much good. but i always have something that can be used as a compass nearby (usually my watch)

with a sextant you can get your latitude from the position of the stars, measuring angles to the horizon. you need to know the time at your present position and at the prime meridian in order to determine longitude as well. this is why ships carried chronometers in the old days.