As a police cruiser drives by with its siren sounding, the pitch of the siren decreases. The same thing happens at the Indianapolis 500 as a race car passes you. The pitch of the engine is steady as the car approaches, decreases as the car passes, and is steady—but lower—as the car recedes into the distance. These are two examples of the Doppler shift. Doppler pointed out that the motion of the source toward the observer causes the sound waves to reach the ears at shorter time intervals—therefore, the higher frequency. The reverse is true when the source moves away from the observer. This chapter presents different scenarios using the Doppler formula.
Details
Type Book ChapterPub Date 1/1/2006Stock # PB198X_42