What is the derivation of the Doppler effect for light using Taylor expansion?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the derivation of the Doppler effect for light using Taylor expansion, specifically addressing a discrepancy between the user's approach and their lecturer's notes. The user expected the term involving the speed of the source, u, to be squared in the Taylor expansion, leading to confusion about the correct formulation. The lecturer's notes indicate that the correct expression does not square the u/c term, which is clarified through the McLaurin series expansion of (1+x)^(1/2). The key point of contention is the interpretation of the Taylor expansion and its application to the Doppler effect formula. Understanding the correct series expansion is crucial for accurately deriving the Doppler effect for light.
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Homework Statement



This isn't strictly a homework problem, but I didn't know where else to post this. I can't get the same derivation as my lecturer for the Doppler effect of light - which is shown in the attached file. If you cannot open this, I re-wrote it further down.

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution


For the part in the red box, I thought one would do this via Taylor expansion, thus I expected the ##\frac{u}{c}## to be squared, i.e fr = fs##(1 \pm \frac{1}{2}\frac{u}{c}^2)(1 \pm \frac{1}{2}\frac{u}{c}^2)##. I can't see why this wouldn't be the case. Could someone please tell me why I'm wrong?

(In case you cannot open the file, my lecture notes say fr = fs##(1 \pm \frac{u}{c})^\frac{1}{2} (1 \pm \frac{u}{c})^\frac{-1}{2}##=##(1 \pm \frac{1}{2}\frac{u}{c})(1 \pm \frac{1}{2}\frac{u}{c})##)
 

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McClaurin series of (1+x)1/2 = 1 + (1/2) x + ... Note that x is not squared in the second term of the right side.
 
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