- #1
TheCanadian
- 367
- 13
I recently came across an equation stating that ## \lambda_{ob} = \frac{\lambda}{cos(\alpha)} ## if ##\alpha## is the angle the observer is relative to the wave's direction of propagation. I guess I can kind of understand that a person perpendicular (i.e. ##\alpha = 1##) would see the normal wavelength, but am just failing to understand what exactly it even means to observe the wavelength at an angle. How does standing perpendicular to the wavefront make it look like the wave has an infinite wavelength?