The Doppler Effect

Victoria Nguyen LO5

Daily life scenario

Youre sitting in the car when suddenly you hear a distant siren from
behind you. As the ambulance approaches your car, the sound of its
siren gets louder and louder. But once the ambulance passes your car,
the sound of its siren gets softer. Why?

Well, its because of the Doppler effect!

Doppler effect

The Doppler effect is a phenomenon that states that an approaching

source of sound will generate a high frequency and switch to lower
frequency as it passes by due to the compression and expansion of the
sound waves wavelength

Scenarios of the Doppler effect

1) If the source and the receiver are both
stationary, then the frequencies will remain the
same.
2) However, if either the source (S) or the receiver
(R) are moving, then the frequency at the receiver
end compared to the source will be different.
Lets focus on the receivers end:
If both source and receiver are approaching
each other = higher freq at Rs end
If both source and receiver are moving apart =
lower freq at Rs end
This also explains why approaching sirens will
sound high pitch while a receding siren will sound
low pitch!

The Doppler effect equation

Now that we know the concept of the Doppler effect, we can
actually calculate the frequency at the receivers end using this
equation!
Velocity of
receiver
Frequency
measured at
receivers end

Frequency
measured at
sources end
Velocity of
sound
traveling in
air
(~343 m/s)

Velocity of
source

But what do these signs mean???

No need to panic! These signs just represent different scenarios of the
movement of the source and the receiver!

An end moving TOWARDS a stationary end

When either the source or the receiver
is moving TOWARDS the stationary end,
use the + sign on top and sign on the
bottom.
This makes sense because by doing so,
we are increasing the numerator and
decreasing the denominator, which will
give us a higher R frequency, supporting
the Doppler effect.

An end moving AWAY from a stationary end

However, when either the source or
the receiver is moving AWAY from the
stationary end,
change the sign at the bottom and
change it to a + sign.
This makes sense because it will
decrease the numerator and increase
the denominator, which will result in a
lower R frequency, supporting the
Doppler effect.

Now lets answer the most important

question ever!!

What costume is Sheldon (the character from Big Bang Theory) wearing
in this picture?

The Doppler effect!

Hope you enjoyed this presentation.

Now you know what the Doppler
effect is about!