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Bill Nye the Science Guy Answers: What is the Doppler Effect?

Author: Bill Nye

Hey, Bill, what's the Doppler Effect?

Doppler Effect for a Moving Sound Source

Perhaps you recall an instance in which a police car or emergency vehicle was traveling towards you on the highway. As the car approached with its siren blasting, the pitch of the siren sound (a measure of the siren's frequency) was high; and then suddenly after the car passed by, the pitch of the siren sound was low. That was the Doppler effect - an apparent shift in frequency for a sound wave produced by a moving source.