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Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect is the change in frequency of a wave due to relative motion between the source and observer. When a source moves towards an observer, the frequency increases and the pitch or wavelength shifts towards blue. When a source moves away, the frequency decreases and the pitch or wavelength shifts towards red. The Doppler effect applies to both sound and light waves and is important in astronomy for determining movement and distance of celestial objects.

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22 views

Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect is the change in frequency of a wave due to relative motion between the source and observer. When a source moves towards an observer, the frequency increases and the pitch or wavelength shifts towards blue. When a source moves away, the frequency decreases and the pitch or wavelength shifts towards red. The Doppler effect applies to both sound and light waves and is important in astronomy for determining movement and distance of celestial objects.

Uploaded by

8tj8sgt7rb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Doppler Effect

Daniella Gayas XII - Plato


What is Doppler Effect?
The apparent change in the frequency and
wavelength of a wave when the observer and
the source of the wave move relative to each
other. It was first discovered by the Austrian
mathematician and physicist Christian
Doppler in 1842.
Doppler effect is the change in the frequency of
a sound or light wave as the source or observer moves.
When a source of waves is moving closer to an
observer, the frequency of the waves increases. The
frequency of the wave increases, so the pitch of sound
becomes higher or the wavelength of light becomes
more blue. Conversely, when the source moves away
from the observer, the frequency decreases. Sound
pitch becomes lower or light becomes redder.
The Doppler effect explains why a siren sounds higher-pitched as
it approaches you and lower-pitched as it moves away from you.
The waves get compressed or stretched by the relative motion.
FORMULA
EXAMPLE

A sound source with a frequency of 790Hz moves


away from a stationary observer at a rate of 15m/s.
What frequency does the observer hear?

The speed of sound is 340m/s.


Given:

v = 340 m/s
vo = 0
vs = 15 m/s
fs = 790 Hz
Doppler effect in light
In light waves, the Doppler effect is known as red shift or
blue shift, depending on whether the source is moving away
from or toward the observer. When the light source moves
away from the observer, the frequency received by the
observer will be less than the frequency transmitted by the
source. This causes a shift towards the red end of the visible
light spectrum. Astronomers call it the redshift.
Conversely, when the source moves
toward the observer, its light shifts to
shorter wavelengths (blue shift). Red shift
and blue shift are important in
astronomy, as they provide information
about the movement and distance of
celestial objects.
FORMULA
Light
λR = λS [(1-β) / (1+β)]1/2

λR is the wavelength seen by


the receiver
λS is the wavelength of the
source
β = v/c = velocity / speed of light
Thank you!

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