Land surveyors once used tape measures and transits to measure distances and positions Because the 1980s, electronic distance measurement, or EDM, devices have allowed for a lot more efficient and accurate measurements These use a wave of energy that's shot between your EDM instrument and a reflector Enough time the beam takes to come back is then calculated as distance Today, such calculations can be done using sophisticated GPS systems The Global Positioning System uses a network of satellites to precisely pinpoint the device's location on Earth at any moment GPS uses the principle of trilateration, using the location of several satellites to pinpoint an exact location A receiver can determine the latitude, longitude, and elevation of a point using four or even more satellites; there are always a total of 24 Global Positioning System satellites currently used First created by the US Department of Defense as a navigational assist in 1994, today it is found in many devices, tracking everything from cell phones and delivery vehicles to the movement of the tectonic plates of Earth's crust Land surveyors use Global Position Systems to notice the complete coordinates of spatial locations Exact measurement of the positions is probably the fundamental elements of land surveying The advantage of is that it is a lot more accurate than hand-measuring these locations There's some degree of error in every land surveying measurements, because of human errors, environmental characteristics like variations in magnetic fields, temperature, and gravity, and instrument errors GPS allows for a lot more precise measurements than previously open to land surveyors using measuring tape and an angle sight Another benefit of the use of its use as a land surveyor is that the coordinates can be located precisely, while other methods of land surveying rely on measurements from other known locations, such as the edge of the house line, the corner of a house, or another landmark These locations could change as time passes, such as if a house is torn down or another obstacle is made between your structure and the measured point; a good surveyor's stake could be removed prior to the land is re-surveyed The coordinate of a given location on Earth, however, remains exactly the same Therefore, using https//propertyinspectionsnwcom/ as a land surveyor produces measurements that will be accurate no matter what happens to the encompassing land Although Global Position System receivers allow for very precise measurements, there's still a qualification of error involved A receiver on a tripod will record the positioning slightly differently each time; when many measurements are taken, these data points will form a cluster round the actual location Better-quality receivers, of course, reduce this amount of error Survey-grade receivers, instead of those designed for non-surveying uses, may create a band of measurements clustered in a matter of one centimeter of the specific location Today's receivers are steadily gaining used, but might not be as accurate as the surveyor want, especially in areas that are heavily wooded or which have other large obstructions However, the technology is rapidly advancing and gaining a foothold in the available equipment for land surveyors Since 1994, the accuracy available when working with GPS units has improved steadily