Calculating Doppler Shift for Radar Gun and Moving Ambulance

mexqwerty
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
A police car is traveling at a constant speed of 100. km/h with a radar gun which generates and detects radiowaves. The police car and the ambulance drive directly towards each other. The radar gun produces radiowaves with a wavelength of 0.0650 m.

What doppler shift (Δf = f′–f) is detected by the radar gun after the radiowave has been reflected by the ambulance?

I don't really know what to do. Do I use the relative speed between the police car and ambulance which is 180kmph? The right answer is 1540 Hz.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
You have to walk yourself through the steps - the police car is acting as a transmitter of the original wave, and a receiver of the reflected wave, and it's moving.

Personally, since radio waves are light, I'd use the relative speed and the relativistic Doppler shift. F it were sound you may have to account for the medium.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
4K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
4K
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
7K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
2K
Replies
8
Views
3K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
4K
Replies
3
Views
3K
Replies
4
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K