On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 11:19 AM, Mitch Haley <m...@voyager.net> wrote:
> WILTON wrote: > >> OK, I saw the key two words the second time I read it - "in part." Sun >> can give you only ONE "line of positions" (LOP) - a huge circle on the >> earth; ya gotta know about where ya are for this info to be any good, i. e. >> - dead reckoning (RD), for example - projecting info from last known >> position to reckon/guess present position. Using old info plus sun LOP, >> you can reckon/guess a "most probable position" MPP - lot better than >> nothing and is "neat," anyway - handheld astrotracker. Now, if it could >> track stars --. ;<) >> > > Well, if you know the time, date, and position of the sun... > I can imagine the car knowing the time and date to some fraction of a > second, but would it know the angle of the sun well enough to locate itself > within 200 miles or so? When you lose your GPS signal, you: - know where you are "right now", including time, trajectory, and speed - know where the sun is, including which direction it is - know what time it is and where the sun is headed relative to your exact location Seems like it would be trivial to calculate, from light monitoring, which direction the car is turning; you still know speed and time, so it seems like it would be fairly simple to calculate a reasonably accurate course. That said I've never lost GPS when I was in a place where the sun was visible. Best, Tim no LORAN in cars? _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com