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Re: Doppler Effect Question



Assuming a horn frequency of 350 Hz, the sound wavelength will be about 1 m.
The phase variation in the sound heard by your two ears as the horn
traverses a circle around you will thus be about 1/5 of a cycle. I doubt
that your brain can detect such a variance.

Paul O. Johnson

----- Original Message -----
From: "J M S" <jmsphys@JUNO.COM>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 7:42 PM
Subject: Doppler Effect Question


During the course of our unit on waves & sound (h.s. physics) a student
asked the following question regarding the Doppler Effect:

If an observer is stationary and a car drives around the observer in a
perfect circle, will the observer perceive any change in pitch? Or, will
the sound of the horn maintain a constant pitch because the radius of the
circle is constant? At first I said that the pitch would remain constant
because the observer and sound source are always a constant distance from
one another. But then I began to think about the car being at different
distances from each ear and wasn't sure whether there would be a change
in frequency or not. Can anyone help out? This is an algebra/trig-based
course.

Thanks!

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