Listening practice: The clocks that tell your phone where it is1×0:007:490:00Part one: English first listen2:47Part two: 中文讲解与词汇5:05Part three: English replay0:00hostWhen you open a map on your phone, the little blue dot may look simple. It seems to say, here you are. But behind that dot is a story about clocks, satellites, radio signals, and even Einstein. According to GPS.gov, the Global Positioning System is a United States owned utility that provides positioning, navigation, and timing services. It has three main parts: satellites in space, control stations on Earth, and the receiver in your hand. The receiver does not ask the satellites, where am I? Instead, it listens for signals that carry two kinds of information: where a satellite was, and what time the signal left that satellite.0:41hostThe space part of GPS is a constellation of satellites in medium Earth orbit. GPS.gov says the United States is committed to keeping at least twenty four operational GPS satellites available ninety five percent of the time, and that the Space Force has been flying thirty one operational satellites for well over a decade. These satellites orbit at about twenty thousand two hundred kilometers above Earth, and each one circles the planet twice a day. A receiver usually needs signals from at least four satellites. With those signals, it compares the sending time and the receiving time. Because radio signals travel at the speed of light, a tiny time difference can be turned into a distance.1:22hostThis is why time is not a side detail in GPS. GPS.gov explains that each GPS satellite carries multiple atomic clocks, and GPS receivers use the signals to synchronize with those clocks. In timing applications, GPS can let users determine time to within one hundred billionths of a second, without owning an atomic clock. That precision matters far beyond phone maps. Power grids, communications networks, financial systems, seismic instruments, and weather radar networks all use precise timing to keep separate machines working together. If the time stamps are wrong, the system may still run, but it loses the clean order of events.2:02hostThen relativity enters the story. NIST explains that GPS satellites carry atomic clocks and are affected by Einstein's theories. Because the satellites move fast, special relativity makes their clocks fall behind clocks on Earth by about seven microseconds per day. Because they are in weaker gravity high above Earth, general relativity makes their clocks run faster by about forty five microseconds per day. Put the two effects together, and the satellite clocks run about thirty eight microseconds per day faster than clocks on Earth. That sounds tiny. But GPS depends on light speed timing. If engineers ignored the correction, location errors would grow quickly. So the blue dot on your phone is also a quiet daily test of physics.2:47coach这一遍先抓主线:手机地图上的蓝点,看起来是在回答「我在哪里」,其实先要回答「信号走了多久」。GPS 卫星把自己的位置和发出信号的时间传下来,接收器比较发出时间和收到时间,再用光速把时间差换成距离。所以本期最重要的逻辑是:定位依赖距离,距离依赖时间,时间依赖极准的钟。3:17coach几个关键词先记住。positioning 是定位,navigation 是导航,timing 是授时,也就是提供精确时间。constellation 在这里不是星座,而是卫星星座,指一组按轨道排列的卫星。receiver 是接收器,比如手机里的 GPS 接收模块。atomic clock 是原子钟,靠原子稳定振动来计时。synchronize 是同步,让不同设备的时钟对齐。3:51coach再听几个数字。GPS.gov 说,GPS 承诺至少二十四颗运行卫星在百分之九十五的时间可用,实际运行卫星长期多于这个数。卫星高度大约二万零二百公里,一天绕地球两圈。GPS 计时应用可以把时间确定到一千亿分之一秒这个量级。这里的 one hundred billionths of a second,不要逐词卡住,理解成「极小的时间差」就够了。4:25coach最后看长难句。Because the satellites move fast, special relativity makes their clocks fall behind clocks on Earth by about seven microseconds per day. 句子主干是 special relativity makes their clocks fall behind clocks on Earth,意思是「狭义相对论让卫星上的钟比地面钟慢」。前面的 Because the satellites move fast 是原因状语。后面 by about seven microseconds per day 是差多少。下一遍复听时,重点听 because, makes, fall behind, by 这几个结构信号。5:05hostWhen you open a map on your phone, the little blue dot may look simple. It seems to say, here you are. But behind that dot is a story about clocks, satellites, radio signals, and even Einstein. According to GPS.gov, the Global Positioning System is a United States owned utility that provides positioning, navigation, and timing services. It has three main parts: satellites in space, control stations on Earth, and the receiver in your hand. The receiver does not ask the satellites, where am I? Instead, it listens for signals that carry two kinds of information: where a satellite was, and what time the signal left that satellite.5:46hostThe space part of GPS is a constellation of satellites in medium Earth orbit. GPS.gov says the United States is committed to keeping at least twenty four operational GPS satellites available ninety five percent of the time, and that the Space Force has been flying thirty one operational satellites for well over a decade. These satellites orbit at about twenty thousand two hundred kilometers above Earth, and each one circles the planet twice a day. A receiver usually needs signals from at least four satellites. With those signals, it compares the sending time and the receiving time. Because radio signals travel at the speed of light, a tiny time difference can be turned into a distance.6:25hostThis is why time is not a side detail in GPS. GPS.gov explains that each GPS satellite carries multiple atomic clocks, and GPS receivers use the signals to synchronize with those clocks. In timing applications, GPS can let users determine time to within one hundred billionths of a second, without owning an atomic clock. That precision matters far beyond phone maps. Power grids, communications networks, financial systems, seismic instruments, and weather radar networks all use precise timing to keep separate machines working together. If the time stamps are wrong, the system may still run, but it loses the clean order of events.7:05hostThen relativity enters the story. NIST explains that GPS satellites carry atomic clocks and are affected by Einstein's theories. Because the satellites move fast, special relativity makes their clocks fall behind clocks on Earth by about seven microseconds per day. Because they are in weaker gravity high above Earth, general relativity makes their clocks run faster by about forty five microseconds per day. Put the two effects together, and the satellite clocks run about thirty eight microseconds per day faster than clocks on Earth. That sounds tiny. But GPS depends on light speed timing. If engineers ignored the correction, location errors would grow quickly. So the blue dot on your phone is also a quiet daily test of physics.