Name: Logan Opalka '25 Date: 5/29/24

Student Exploration: Doppler Shift

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.

Vocabulary: Doppler shift, frequency, pitch, sonic boom, sound waves, wavelength

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

Have you ever heard a siren on a moving ambulance, fire truck, or police car? If so, what happens to the
sound as the vehicle passes by?

The sound is quieter while the vehicle is further away from you, but it increases louder as it
approaches.

The change in the sound that you hear is called the Doppler shift.

Gizmo Warm-up
The Doppler Shift Gizmo illustrates why the Doppler shift occurs. The
Gizmo shows a vehicle that emits sound waves and an observer who
will hear the sounds.

1. Click the PLAY SAMPLE button ( ). (Check that the Gizmo’s

sound and your computer’s speakers are on.)

What do you hear?

A siren.

2. Click Play ( ) and observe the sound waves emitted from the moving car. Click Pause ( ) and
compare the sound waves in front of and behind the car. What do you notice?

The waves are closer together at the front of the car, while the waves behind the car are
father apart from each other.

3. Use the Ruler to measure the wavelength, or the distance between the lines, of the waves in front of and
behind the car. (Note: The red circles represent every thousandth wave.)

Wavelength in front of car: 500 Wavelength behind car: 900

4. Why do you think the waves in front of the car have a shorter wavelength than the waves behind the car?

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 I believe that is because the car moves towards the waves in front of it and away from the
ones behind it, therefore the distance between the waves is less in front than behind.

Get the Gizmo ready:

Activity A: ● Click Reset ( ).
● Check that fsource is set to 500 Hz and vsound is set
The Doppler shift to 340 m/s, close to the actual speed of sound.
● Set vsource to 0 m/s.

Introduction: The pitch of a sound, or how shrill or deep it is, is related to the frequency of the sound waves.
The greater the number of sound waves passing by a point each second is, the higher the frequency and the
pitch will be. The unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz).

Question: What causes the Doppler shift?

1. Observe: With the car’s velocity (vsource) set to 0 m/s, click Play. Notice the sound waves moving away from
the car in all directions.

A. Increase the frequency of the sound waves by moving the fsource slider to the right.

How does this affect the spacing of the waves? They are closer together.

When the wavelength of the waves is short, the sound will be high in pitch.

B. Now decrease the frequency by moving the fsource slider all the way to the left.

How does this affect the spacing of the waves? They are farther apart.

Sound waves that are spaced far apart will produce a lower, deeper pitch.

2. Measure: Click Reset. Set the frequency (fsource) to 1000 Hz. Change the velocity of the sound source
(vsource) to 200 m/s. (The car is now an airplane.) At upper right, turn on the Observed frequency (Hz)
checkbox.

Drag the observer onto the road. Click Play, and then click Pause when the sound waves first reach the
observer.

A. What is the frequency of sound waves in front of the plane? 2428 Hz

B. Click Play, and then click Pause just after the plane has passed the observer. What is the

frequency of sound waves behind the plane? 629 Hz

3. Summarize: Based on what you have learned, how will the sound that the observer hears change as the
airplane passes by? Explain your answer.

As the plane flies by, the frequency shifts from 2428 to 629 Hz, changing the pitch of the
sound from high to low.

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 Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

● Click Reset ( ).
Faster than the ● Set fsource to 300 Hz.
speed of sound ● Check that vsound is set to 340 m/s.

Introduction: On October 14, 1947, the Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to officially
travel faster than the speed of sound in level flight. Modern fighter jets can fly nearly three times the speed of
sound.

Question: What happens when objects travel faster than the speed of sound?

1. Observe: Some jet planes can travel faster than the speed of sound. Place the observer below the road,
and set the velocity of the plane (vsource) to 500 m/s. Click Play.

Observe for a while, and then click Pause. What do you notice?

The plane is moving ahead of the sound waves, leaving them behind.

2. Make a sketch: Click Reset. The red circles represent every

thousandth sound wave. To see more waves, turn on Display
additional waves. Click Play and observe.

Click the image, click Edit

at right.
✏️Sketch the sound waves in the diagram
3. Infer: Think about what the observer would experience as the jet flew by.

A. Describe what the observer would see and hear as the plane flew by.

The observer would first see the plane fly past, and then hear the sound of many
sound waves hitting the mat at once.

B. Supersonic aircraft produce a loud noise called a sonic boom. Look at the waves hitting the
observer. Based on what you see, what causes a sonic boom?

Sound waves coming from a cone. The person feels the sonic boom when the sound
reaches her ears.

C. At major sporting events in America, a flight squadron such as the Blue Angels often flies over the
stadium in a tight formation at supersonic speeds. Would spectators in the stands hear the jet
planes first or see them first? Explain your reasoning.

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 They will see the jet planes before they hear them since they travel faster than the
speed of sound and hence will be in front of their sound waves while flying.

Activity C:
Get the Gizmo ready:
Measuring the ● Click Reset.
frequency change

Question: What factors affect the magnitude of the Doppler shift?

1. Observe: Using the Gizmo, try to determine how each factor (fsource, vsource, and vsound) affects the observed
Doppler shift. Based on what you have observed, how will each of these actions affect the magnitude of the
Doppler shift?

A. Increasing the frequency of the sound (fsource):

Causes sound waves to be further apart.

B. Increasing the velocity of the source (vsource):

Puts the object in motion to get its speed in meters per second.

C. Increasing the speed of sound (vsound):

Causes sound waves to travel quicker.

2. Measure: Set fsource to 500 Hz, vsource to 200 m/s, and vsound to 340 m/s. Turn on Observed frequency, and
drag the observer into the middle of the road.

A. Click Play, and then click Pause just before the airplane reaches the observer. What is the

frequency observed by a person in front of the airplane? 1214 Hz

B. Click Play, and then click Pause just after the airplane has passed the observer. What is the

frequency observed by a person behind the airplane? 315 Hz

C. To measure the magnitude of the Doppler shift, divide the frequency of sound waves in front of the

plane by the frequency behind the plane. What do you get? 3.86

3. Gather data: For each combination, measure the frequencies of the sound waves in front of and behind the
moving sound source. Then divide the first number by the second number to calculate the Doppler shift
magnitude. In the first experiment, find the effect of frequency.

Frequency in Doppler shift

fsource vsource vsound Frequency behind
front of source magnitude
(Hz) (m/s) (m/s) source (Hz)
(Hz)
300 200 340 728 Hz 189 Hz 3.86

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 1000 200 340 2428 Hz 629 Hz 3.86

Now gather data to determine the effect of the sound source velocity.

fsource vsource vsound Frequency in front Frequency behind Doppler shift

(Hz) (m/s) (m/s) of source (Hz) source (Hz) magnitude
500 100 340 708 Hz 386 Hz 1.83
500 300 340 4243 Hz 266 Hz 16

Finally, gather data to see the effect of the speed of sound. (Note: The speed of sound in Earth’s
atmosphere ranges from about 274 m/s to 355 m/s.)

fsource vsource vsound Frequency in front Frequency behind Doppler shift

(Hz) (m/s) (m/s) of source (Hz) source (Hz)
500 200 300 1499 Hz 300 Hz 5
500 200 500 833 357 Hz 2.33

4. Analyze: Look carefully at the Doppler shifts for each experiment.

A. What effect did increasing the frequency of the sound (fsource) have on the magnitude of the Doppler

shift? The doppler shifter showed no influence from the sound frequency.

B. What effect did increasing the velocity of the sound source (vsource) have on the magnitude of the

Doppler shift? The faster the source, the larger the change.

C. What effect did increasing the velocity of sound (vsound) have on the magnitude of the Doppler shift?

The shift decreases as the velocity of sound increases.

5. Think and discuss: Why did the magnitude of the Doppler shift increase as the velocity of the sound source
increased, but decreased as the velocity of sound increased? If possible, discuss your answers with your
classmates and teacher.

The size of the soppler shifter is determined by how close the sound source's velocity is to the
sound velocity.The doppler shift increases when the velocities are closer together. The two
velocities will be closer together as the velocity of the sound source increases or decreases.

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