Can someone explain the doppler shift to me - in simple terms?

Question

Can someone explain the doppler shift to me - in simple terms?

Answer 1

Perception is relative!

It's to do with the effect of sound or light waves on the person seeing or hearing them - like the difference you hear as an emergency siren passes you.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler...

or for a more detailed answer just google Doppler effect and look up wikipedia - there are several entries.

Edit: and for fun watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5KaeCZ_A...

Answer 2

If you listen to a train whistle passing the sound will drop to a lower pitch when it passes you.  This is because the sound waves are pushed together on the way toward you and pulled apart on the way away.

You can also look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_shi...

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_eff...

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/dopple...

Basically:

Blue=coming (moving towards)

Red=going (moving away from)

Answer 4

Doppler shift is the relative difference of voice/noise/sound with respect to two bodies, were one body is stationary or considered to be stationary.

Eg: Close your eyes in the middle of road with heavy traffic.

What you hear is the main example of doppler effect. You hear a cars horn from a distance until it stop infornt of you or go away from you. So you are stationary, car is moving.

Same happens when you run when an alarming car is stuck in the middle of road.

So its the relativity that cause the effect.

Factors are distance, speed of approach...