Chemistry and Physics | What Is The Doppler Effect?
What is the Doppler effect?
The Doppler effect is the change in frequency (number per unit time) of sound or light waves emitted from a moving source. The Doppler effect was explained by Austrian physicist (a scientist specializing in the interaction between matter and energy) Christian Doppler (1803-1853) in 1842.
According to Doppler, waves bunch up as they approach their target and spread out as they move away their target. When the frequency of waves increases, their wavelength (the distance between the crest of one sound or light wave and the crest of the next) becomes shorter. As a result, as a moving source approaches, its sound has a higher pitch and its light appears bluish (blue light is at the short-wavelength end of the visible light spectrum). Likewise as the source moves away, the frequency of the wavelengths decreases. Therefore the sound has a lower pitch and light appears reddish (red light is at the...
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