Doppler effect

Change of wavelength caused by motion of the source.

An animation illustrating how the Doppler effect causes a car engine or siren to sound higher in pitch
when it is approaching than when it is receding. The pink circles represent sound waves.

The Doppler effect (or the Doppler shift) is the change in frequency or wavelength of
a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source.[1] It is named
after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who described the phenomenon in 1842.
A common example of Doppler shift is the change of pitch heard when a vehiclesounding a
horn approaches and recedes from an observer. Compared to the emitted frequency, the
received frequency is higher during the approach, identical at the instant of passing by, and
lower during the recession.[2]
The reason for the Doppler effect is that when the source of the waves is moving towards the
observer, each successive wave crest is emitted from a position closer to the observer than
the previous wave.[2][3] Therefore, each wave takes slightly less time to reach the observer
than the previous wave. Hence, the time between the arrival of successive wave crests at
the observer is reduced, causing an increase in the frequency. While they are traveling, the
distance between successive wave fronts is reduced, so the waves "bunch together".
Conversely, if the source of waves is moving away from the observer, each wave is emitted
from a position farther from the observer than the previous wave, so the arrival time between
successive waves is increased, reducing the frequency. The distance between successive
wave fronts is then increased, so the waves "spread out".
For waves that propagate in a medium, such as sound waves, the velocity of the observer
and of the source are relative to the medium in which the waves are transmitted.[1] The total
Doppler effect may therefore result from motion of the source, motion of the observer, or
motion of the medium. Each of these effects is analyzed separately. For waves which do not
require a medium, such as light or gravity in general relativity, only the relative difference in
velocity between the observer and the source needs to be considered.

Contents

 1History
 2General
 3Analysis
 4Application
o 4.1Sirens
o 4.2Astronomy
o 4.3Radar
 o 4.4Medical
o 4.5Flow measurement
o 4.6Velocity profile measurement
o 4.7Satellite communication
o 4.8Audio
o 4.9Vibration measurement
o 4.10Developmental biology
 5Inverse Doppler effect
 6See also
 7Primary sources
 8References
 9Further reading
 10External links

History[edit]
Doppler first proposed this effect in 1842 in his treatise "Über das farbige Licht der
Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels" (On the coloured light of the binary
stars and some other stars of the heavens).[4] The hypothesis was tested for sound waves
by Buys Ballot in 1845.[p 1] He confirmed that the sound's pitch was higher than the emitted
frequency when the sound source approached him, and lower than the emitted frequency
when the sound source receded from him. Hippolyte Fizeau discovered independently the
same phenomenon on electromagnetic waves in 1848 (in France, the effect is sometimes
called "effet Doppler-Fizeau" but that name was not adopted by the rest of the world as
Fizeau's discovery was six years after Doppler's proposal).[p 2] [5] In Britain, John Scott
Russell made an experimental study of the Doppler effect (1848).[p 3]

General[edit]
In classical physics, where the speeds of source and the receiver relative to the medium are
lower than the velocity of waves in the medium, the relationship between observed

frequency and emitted frequency is given by:[6]

where

is the velocity of waves in the medium;

is the velocity of the receiver relative to the medium; positive if the receiver is
moving towards the source (and negative in the other direction);

is the velocity of the source relative to the medium; positive if the source is
moving away from the receiver (and negative in the other direction).
The frequency is decreased if either is moving away from the other.
The above formula assumes that the source is either directly approaching or
receding from the observer. If the source approaches the observer at an angle (but
still with a constant velocity), the observed frequency that is first heard is higher than
the object's emitted frequency. Thereafter, there is a monotonic decrease in the
observed frequency as it gets closer to the observer, through equality when it is
coming from a direction perpendicular to the relative motion (and was emitted at the
point of closest approach; but when the wave is received, the source and observer
will no longer be at their closest), and a continued monotonic decrease as it recedes
from the observer. When the observer is very close to the path of the object, the
transition from high to low frequency is very abrupt. When the observer is far from
the path of the object, the transition from high to low frequency is gradual.

If the speeds and are small compared to the speed of the wave, the

relationship between observed frequency and emitted frequency is

approximately[6]
Observed frequency Change in frequency

where

is the velocity of the receiver relative to the source: it is positive when the
source and the receiver are moving towards each other.
show
Proof

Stationary sound source produces sound waves at a constant frequency f, and the
wave-fronts propagate symmetrically away from the source at a constant speed c.
The distance between wave-fronts is the wavelength. All observers will hear the
same frequency, which will be equal to the actual frequency of the source
where f = f0 .
The same sound source is radiating sound waves at a constant frequency in the
same medium. However, now the sound source is moving with a speed υs = 0.7 c.
Since the source is moving, the centre of each new wavefront is now slightly
displaced to the right. As a result, the wave-fronts begin to bunch up on the right
side (in front of) and spread further apart on the left side (behind) of the source. An
observer in front of the source will hear a higher frequency
f = c + 0/c – 0.7c f0 = 3.33 f0 and an observer behind the source will hear a lower
frequency
f = c – 0/c + 0.7c f0 = 0.59 f0 .

Now the source is moving at the speed of sound in the medium ( υs = c). The wave
fronts in front of the source are now all bunched up at the same point. As a result,
an observer in front of the source will detect nothing until the source arrives where
f = c + 0/c – c f0 = ∞ and an observer behind the source will hear a lower frequency
f = c – 0/c + c f0 = 0.5 f0 .
The sound source has now surpassed the speed of sound in the medium, and is
traveling at 1.4 c. Since the source is moving faster than the sound waves it
creates, it actually leads the advancing wavefront. The sound source will pass by a
stationary observer before the observer hears the sound. As a result, an observer in
front of the source will detect
f = c + 0/c – 1.4c f0 = -2.5 f0 and an observer behind the source will hear a lower
frequency
f = c – 0/c + 1.4c f0 = 0.42 f0 .

Analysis[edit]
To understand what happens, consider the following analogy. Someone throws
one ball every second at a man. Assume that balls travel with constant velocity.
If the thrower is stationary, the man will receive one ball every second. However,
if the thrower is moving towards the man, he will receive balls more frequently
because the balls will be less spaced out. The inverse is true if the thrower is
moving away from the man. So it is actually the wavelength which is affected; as
a consequence, the received frequency is also affected. It may also be said that
the velocity of the wave remains constant whereas wavelength changes; hence
frequency also changes.
With an observer stationary relative to the medium, if a moving source is

emitting waves with an actual frequency (in this case, the wavelength is

changed, the transmission velocity of the wave keeps constant note that
the transmission velocity of the wave does not depend on the velocity of the

source), then the observer detects waves with a frequency given by

A similar analysis for a moving observer and a stationary source (in this
case, the wavelength keeps constant, but due to the motion, the rate at

which the observer receives waves and hence the transmission

velocity of the wave [with respect to the observer] is changed) yields
the observed frequency:

These can be generalized into the equation that was presented in the
previous section.

An interesting effect was predicted by Lord Rayleigh in his classic

book on sound: if the source is moving toward the observer at twice
the speed of sound, a musical piece emitted by that source would
be heard in correct time and tune, but backwards.[7] The Doppler
effect with sound is only clearly heard with objects moving at high
speed, as change in frequency of musical tone involves a speed of
around 40 meters per second, and smaller changes in frequency
can easily be confused by changes in the amplitude of the sounds
from moving emitters. Neil A Downie has demonstrated [8] how the
Doppler effect can be made much more easily audible by using an
ultrasonic (e.g. 40 kHz) emitter on the moving object. The observer
then uses a heterodyne frequency converter, as used in many bat
detectors, to listen to a band around 40 kHz. In this case, with the
bat detector tuned to give frequency for the stationary emitter of
2000 Hz, the observer will perceive a frequency shift of a whole
tone, 240 Hz, if the emitter travels at 2 meters per second.