When I asked the renowned physicist and author Freeman Dyson what he thought to be the most important, most clever, and most inspiring measurement, he responded without hesitation, “GPS [Global Positioning System] is the most spectacular example. It has changed everything.” Actually, I was expecting a different kind of response, perhaps something from his days in operations research for the Royal Air Force during World War II, but GPS made sense as both a truly revolutionary measurement instrument as well as a measurement in its own right. GPS is economically available for just about anyone
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