ROSE MARY PUBLIC SCHOOL

2022-23

PHYSICS INVESIGATORY PROJECT

ON

DOPPLER EFECT

DONE BY
SHRIRAM K
CLASS XII
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that SHRIRAM K, a student of class XII has

successfully completed the investigatory chemistry project entitled
DOPPLER EFFECCT under the guidance of Mr.S.MANIKANDAN
during the year 2022-2023 in partial fulfilment of chemistry
practical examination conducted by AISSCE, New Delhi.

EXTERNAL EXAMINER INTERNAL EXAMINER

PRINCIPAL
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my profound gratitude to God Almighty for enabling me

and strengthening me to complete this work.

Words are inadequate to express my sincere gratitude to

Mrs.D.JUDY PRIYADHARSHINI, Principal of Rosemary Public
School. She has been a constant source of encouragement and
support for the progression of my work.

I express my sincere thanks to my physics teacher

Mr.S.MANIKANDAN for his kind help during the course of this
study and has been of great support to me and my work.

I thank my family members and friends from the bottom of my

heart for their constant encouragement and prayers.

SHRIRAM K
 TABLE OF CONTETNS
S.no HEADING

1 DOPPLER

2 DOPPLER EFFECT

3 DOPPLER EFFECT EXAMPLES

4 DOPPLER EFFECT FORMULAS

5 DOPPLER EFFFECT IN SIREN

6 DOPPLER EFFECT IN LIGHT

COLOUR OF BINARY STARS –DOPPLER

7 EFFECT

8 LIMITATION OF DOPPLER EFFECT

9 CONCLUSION

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 DOPPLER

Full name:  Christian Johann Doppler

Doppler was born in Salzburg (today Austria) in 1803. After completing high

school, Doppler studied philosophy in Salzburg and mathematics and
physics at the Imperial–Royal Polytechnic Institute (now TU Wien), where he
became an assistant in 1829. In 1835 he began work at the Prague
Polytechnic (now Czech Technical University in Prague), where he received
an appointment in 1841.

One year later, at the age of 38, Doppler gave a lecture to the Royal Bohemian
Society of Sciences and subsequently published his most notable work, 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").

There is a facsimile edition with an English translation by Alec Eden. In this work,
Doppler postulated his principle (later coined the Doppler Effect) that the observed
frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the source and the observer,
and he later tried to use this concept for explaining the colour of binary stars.
 DOPPLER EFFECT

 Doppler Effect is an important phenomenon in various

scientific disciplines, including planetary science. The
Doppler Effect or the Doppler shift describes the changes in
the frequency of any sound or light wave produced by a
moving source with respect to an observer.

 Doppler effect in physics is defined as the increase

(or decrease) in the frequency of sound, light, or
other waves as the source and observer move
towards (or away from) each other.

 Waves emitted by a source travelling towards an observer

get compressed. In contrast, waves emitted by a source
travelling away from an observer get stretched out.
Christian Johann Doppler first proposed the Doppler Effect
(Doppler Shift) in 1842.
 DOPPLER EFFECT EXAMPLES

Case 1: Two people A and B, are standing on the road, as shown below in the
picture.

Which person hears the sound of the revving engine with a greater magnitude?

 Person A hears the sound of the revving engine with a greater

magnitude than person B. Person B, standing behind the car, receives
fewer waves per second (because they’re spread out), resulting in a
low-pitched sound. But, person A who is in front of the car, receives
more of those sound wave ripples per second. As a result, the
frequency of the waves is higher, which means the sound has a higher
pitch.
Case 2: Now let us consider the following situations:

Situation 1: How is the pattern of waves formed when you suddenly jump into a
pond?

Situation 2: How is the pattern of waves formed when you are walking in a pond?

The image given below highlights the difference between wave patterns in
both situations.

 The difference in the wave pattern is due to the source’s movement in

the second case. This is what the Doppler effect is. In the Doppler
Effect, the frequency received by the observer is higher during the
approach, identical when the relative positions are the same, and
keeps lowering on the recession of the source.
 DOPPLER EFFECT FORMULA

Doppler Effect is the apparent change in the frequency of waves due to the
relative motion between the source of the sound and the observer. We can
deduce the apparent frequency in the Doppler Effect using the following
equation:

(a) Source Moving Towards the Observer at Rest

In this case, the observer’s velocity is zero, so V0 is equal to zero. Substituting
this into the Doppler Effect equation above, we get the equation of the Doppler
Effect when a source is moving towards an observer at rest as:
 (b) Source Moving Away from the Observer at Rest

Since the velocity of the observer is zero, we can eliminate V0 from the
equation. But this time, the source moves away from the observer, so its
velocity is negative to indicate the direction. Hence, the equation now
becomes as follows:

(c) Observer Moving Towards a Stationary Source

In this case, vs will equal to zero, hence we get the following equation:

(d)Observer Moving Away from a Stationary Source

Since the observer is moving away, the velocity of the observer becomes negative.
So, instead of adding V0, we now subtract, since V0 is negative.

Uses of Doppler Effect

Many people mistake the Doppler Effect to be applicable only for sound waves. It
works with all types of waves including light. Below, we have listed a few
applications of the Doppler Effect:

 Sirens
 Radar
 Astronomy
 Medical Imaging
 Blood Flow Measurement
 Satellite Communication
 Vibration Measurement
 Developmental Biology
 Audio
 Velocity Profile Measurement

DOPPLER EFFECT IN SIREN

When an ambulance passes with its siren blaring, you hear the
pitch of the siren change: as it approaches, the siren’s pitch
sounds higher than when it is moving away from you. This
change is a common physical demonstration of the Doppler
Effect.

So why do we hear a change in pitch for passing sirens?

The pitch we hear depends on the frequency of the sound wave.

A high frequency corresponds to a high pitch.

So while the siren produces waves of constant frequency, as it

approaches us the observed frequency increases and our ear
hears a higher pitch.

After it has passed us and is moving away, the observed

frequency and pitch drop. The true pitch of the siren is
somewhere between the pitch we hear as it approaches us, and
the pitch we hear as it speeds away.
 DOPPLER EFFECT IN LIGHT

 Doppler Effect of light can be described as the apparent change in the

frequency of the light observed by the observer due to relative motion
between the source of light and the observer.
 For sound waves, however, the equations for the Doppler shift differ
markedly depending on whether it is the source, the observer, or the air,
which is moving. Light requires no medium, and the Doppler shift for light
travelling in a vacuum depends only on the relative speed of the observer
and source.

 When the light source moves away from the observer, the frequency
received by the observer will be less than the frequency transmitted by
the source. This causes a shift towards the red end of the visible light
spectrum. Astronomers call it the redshift.
 When the light source moves towards the observer, the frequency
received by the observer will be greater than the frequency transmitted
by the source. This causes a shift towards the high-frequency end of
the visible light spectrum. Astronomers call it the blue shift.
 COLOUR OF BINARY STARS –DOPPLER EFFECT

Doppler argues that his theory applies mainly to binary stars. In his opinion the
fixed stars are immobile and white. In a binary star high speeds could be possible
due to orbital motion, and binaries appear to be colourful. Doppler divides the
binaries in two groups:

(1) binary stars of unequal brightness : the brighter star is the heavier one, the
weaker star revolves around him

(2) binary stars of equal brightness : both stars revolve around a center of mass
in the middle, or around a dark third star the colours are usually complementary.

Doppler rules out that the rich complementary colours of binaries are contrast
illusions, because an astronomer said he had observed that covering one star does
not change the colour impression of the other star. 

 The natural colour of stars is white or a weak yellow.

 A white star approaching with progressive speed would successively turn to
green, blue, violet, and invisible (ultraviolet).
 A white star receding with progressive speed would turn to yellow, orange, red,
and invisible (infrared).

Doppler wishes that his frequency shift theory will soon be tested by another
method to determine the radial velocity of stars. He thinks, without reason, that a
confirmation of his theory would imply that light is not a transverse but a
longitudinal wave.
 LIMITATION OF DOPPLER EFFECT

 Experience shows that the assumptions about wave

motion on which our Doppler shift results were
derived are not always valid.
 For one thing, the elastic restoring force by which
particles in an acoustic medium are returned to
their equilibrium positions are not always close to
being linear.
 This is almost always true for large enough
displacements (high enough “volume” of sound). The
result is a wave equation with spatial derivatives of
higher order than ∂2/∂x2. The wave speed is then no
longer λν and the wave changes shape; the wave
“disperses.”
 Another limitation to our Doppler shift equations
arises from the assumption that the speed of the
source is less than the speed of the wave. However,
if the receiver is receding from the source at a speed
exceeding the wave speed, the wave will never catch
up and hence will never be observed at all!
 CONCLUSION

 If you
(observer) are moving
in a direction opposite
to that of the sound
waves (source),
its frequency will
appear to you to be
higher.
Similarly, if sound
waves (source is) are
moving towards you (observer), its frequency will appear to you to be higher than the
original frequency.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Byjus.com
 Wikipedia.com
 CLASS XI – PHY VOLUME 2
 Physnet.org
 Icbse.com