The Doppler Effect

The Doppler Effect

Doppler Effect Change in frequency
and wavelength of a wave for an observer
moving relative to the source of the wave.

Source is moving and observer is stationary.

Source is stationary and observer is moving.
Source and observer are both moving.

Named for Austrian physicist Christian

Doppler.

Proposed the effect in 1842.

The Doppler Effect and Sound

Stationary source and stationary observer

The Doppler Effect and Sound

Moving source and stationary observer

Low frequency,
long wavelength

High frequency,
short wavelength

The Doppler Effect and Sound

Sonic Booms
Caused when an airplane travels faster
than sound.

Supersonic = faster than sound

Sound waves pile up in the direction of

travel.

Form a high pressure cone.

Stationary observers hear a loud boom when
the front of the cone passes by.

Supersonic Flight
A US Navy F/A-18
Super Hornet is shown
here breaking the sound
barrier. There is an
invisible high pressure
cone starting at the
nose of the aircraft. The
cone-shaped cloud is
formed when water
vapor condenses out of
the air in the lowpressure wake of the
high-pressure cone.
This effect is called a
Prandtl-Glauert
singularity, or more
simply, a vapor cone.

The Space Shuttle

Aircraft in supersonic flight actually
produce 2 booms:

1 from nose and 1 from tail.

The following video allows you to hear the

twin sonic booms produced by the space
shuttle Atlantis as it approaches its Florida
landing strip after re-entering Earths
atmosphere in 2008.

The Space Shuttle

The Doppler Effect and Light

Light is also subject to the Doppler effect.

Astronomers use the Doppler shift in starlight

to determine if stars are moving toward or
away from Earth.
Stars moving toward the Earth have their light
wavelengths shortened.
Causes the light to shift toward the blue end of the
visible spectrum.

Stars moving away from Earth have their light

wavelengths lengthened.
Causes the light to shift toward the red end of the
visible spectrum.

Red Shifting and Blue Shifting

The light given off by a star
contains gaps called
absorption lines.

Absorption lines correspond to

the elements that make up a
star.
Every element gives its own
absorption signature to the stars
light.
If we know what a star is made
of, we can usually predict where
the absorption lines should be in
the stars spectrum of light.

Red Shifting and Blue Shifting

If the star is moving towards
Earth, its light gets bunched
up and shortened.

The blue-violet end of the

spectrum contains the shortest
wavelengths.

The incoming light from the

star appears bluer than it
would if the star were
stationary relative to Earth.

All of the expected absorption

lines get pushed toward the
blue-violet end of the spectrum.

Red Shifting and Blue Shifting

If the star is moving away from
Earth, its light gets stretched
out and lengthened.

The red end of the spectrum

contains the longest
wavelengths.

The incoming light from the

star appears redder than it
would if the star were
stationary relative to Earth.

All of the expected absorption

lines get pushed toward the red
end of the spectrum.

Red Shifting and Blue Shifting

The pair of spectra at left
represent the expected
absorption spectrum of a
stationary star (left) and the
measured spectrum of a star
that is moving relative to Earth
(right).

Can you tell if the star is moving

toward or away from the Earth?

The Doppler Effect and the Big Bang

In 1912 an astronomer named Vesto
Slipher measured a red shift in the light
coming from a distant galaxy.

This indicated that the galaxy was moving

away from Earth.

He later discovered that the light from

almost all distant galaxies was red shifted.
Edwin Hubble later showed that the farther
away the galaxies are, the faster they
seem to be receding from us.

The Doppler Effect and the Big Bang

In 1927 a Belgian physicist and Roman
Catholic priest named Georges Lematre
proposed that the galaxies were receding
because the universe was expanding.

Four years later he would propose the first

model of the Big Bang, in which the Universe
expanded from an infinitely hot, dense state
some time in the distant past.

Later evidence has supported this model.

The Big Bang

Light traveling between
distant galaxies gets
stretched out (red-shifted)
as the space between the
galaxies expands. The
individual stars in galaxies
dont move apart because
they are held close together
by gravity.