Have you ever contemplated how a horn of a bus or any vehicle changes its pitch as it passes by you? It happens because of the Doppler Effect. It means it brings a significant change in the frequency of a wave. It happens because of relative motion. When a vehicle runs on a road, it is in motion.
When you hear a horn or any sound, you become an observer as you are hearing that. An ambulance becomes the wave‘s source. If you, being an observer and an ambulance as a source of siren go in motion concerning each other, then the frequency of sound will remain stable. Here, one needs to understand that frequency is not changed by the source. It happens because of the relative motion between source and observer.
Examples of Doppler Effect
Let’s understand it with another example. For example, you went to a market. You are standing beside a busy road. Suddenly, you hear a motorcycle coming towards you. The sound of the engine probably seems to change as it passes by you. It may seem that it emits a tower-pitched sound once it passes you and moves away from you. Why does it feel that the motorcycle engine emitted two different sounds? Why does it feel when the motorcycle moves towards you or goes away from you.
Now it is time to understand that what you hear in the form of the pitch of the sound is indeed the frequency of the sound waves. If the sound waves seem quite close together, you will truly have a high-frequency sound. And if they are indeed farther apart, you will truly have a lower frequency sound.
Here, it needs to be mentioned that when a sound wave occurs by a moving vehicle or any platform, the apparent frequency of the sound will change. It helps to shift in frequency because the motion of the sound wave source or the observer is regarded as the Doppler Effect.
Here, we need to understand when a source of sound waves moves closer or far away from you, then the waves emitted become closer or far away together. It means if you hear a higher frequency sound when the sound source comes closer to you. But you will have a less frequency sound if the sound source goes away from you. If you never paid attention to this site, then you must do. Next time when you visit the market or you are on a busy road, you should consider this factor to analyze more profoundly.
Also Read: Indian Astronomical Observatory
Does This Effect Affect The Light Waves
Now, let’s understand a bit about the Doppler Effect and light waves. If you think that this major effect may not affect all sorts of waves then you are wrong indeed. The Doppler Effect is known for affecting all sorts of waves indeed. You must have a clear understanding of Waves: Types & Properties to understand this in a better way.
If you think that it is tricky to understand then you must do some short and multiple questions to get all these points memorable easily. Apart from it, try to understand them with fun and curiosity about why it happens and how it affects other things. The more you get curious, the more things will become easier for you. It is not as tricky as it seems. Moreover, keep note of the questions you get in your head. Try to solve and understand them.
Conclusion
We hope that shared information has helped you a lot to understand this topic in an ideal manner. We tried here to understand the simple example.