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Doppler Shift Quiz
While waiting for your bus you hear in the distance the familiar drone of its engine. After a short while the tone begins to sound lower and lower. Knowing about it's Doppler shift, what should you do?
Pick up your back-pack and get ready, because the bus will soon stop for you.
Run because the bus is accelerating uncontrollably toward you.
Walk home because the bus has already passed you and is accelerating toward the school.
Start walking toward the spot where the school bus is stopped.
None of the Above.
Your youngest sibling is amazingly able to produce a long steady whine for hours on end. While trying to hide from her, you hear the pitch of the irritable noise increase and then decrease. What has just happened?
Your sibling ran away from you. (A)
Your sibling ran past you. (B)
You are amazed at how fast your sibling can run since you are able to notice the Doppler shift in her voice. (C)
A and C.
B and C.
While driving your car, you are stopped for running a red light. You tell the police officer that because of the Doppler shift, the red light (650 nm) was blueshifted to a green light (470 nm) as you drove towards the stop light. How fast would you have to be going in order for this to be true? (use the non-relativistic Doppler shift equation)
0.5 times the speed of light
0.3 times the speed of light
0.1 times the speed of light
0.01 times the speed of light
70 mph
Home
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You Be the Astrophysicist
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Ask An Astrophysicist
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