For anything to know how to go somewhere, it has to know where it is. You won't be able to plot a route to the destination. For example, a GPS won't work if if it can't trilaterate its position on a map. This brings us to a word used in the previous sentence, trilaterate. This means to determine absolute or relative locations of points by measurement of distances, using the geometry of circles or spheres.
This is a simple, graphical representation of trilateration. These are the steps that are used to find your place on, in this case, a graph:
- Find out the distance from each point B, C and D (known locations) and name these distances b, c and d.
- Use each point B, C and D as the center of a circle with respective radii b, c and d
- The coordinates of the point at which these three circles intersect is the coordinates of the device
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