PhysicsLAB Practice Problems
Doppler Effect

Topics: On this worksheet you may assume that the speed of sound in air is 340 m/sec unless otherwise stated.

Page Directions The numerical values in this worksheet are randomly generated allowing students the opportunity to conveniently practice, and drill, common situations.

Before beginning any given worksheet, please look over all of the questions and make sure that there are no duplicate answers shown for the same question. If duplicates are present simply refresh the page until every answer is unique.

In order to check an answer (even when you are just starting the worksheet on Question 1) it is necessary to omit any questions that you have not answered. Once you start submitting answers, the page may be checked as many times as necesasary without changing the randomized answers. Relevant scoring will be provided at the top of the page only when you answer all of the questions on your original submission.


Question 1  A 'clicker' is sounding at 13 Hz; if you are moving towards the 'clicker' at 28 m/sec what apparent frequency do you hear instead?
Question 2  You are riding a bike away from a street musician at 14 m/sec; when the trumpet player hits an 'A'. You know that the frequency of an 'A' should be 440 Hz, what apparent frequency do you hear instead?
Question 3  You are in an ambulance driving towards an accident at 30 m/sec. You hear the horns of the cars in the accident sounding at a frequency of 514 Hz, what is the actual frequency of the car horns.
Question 4  You are riding in a boat into oncoming waves and measure the frequency of the waves to be 28 crests every 10 seconds. Shortly afterwards you come to rest on the water and measure the waves to have an actual frequency of 8 every 10 seconds with a wave speed of 10 m/sec. How fast was your boat traveling before?
Question 5  You are speeding away from a loud speaker. If the original frequency of 514 Hz is shifted to 484 Hz, what is your speed away from the speaker?
Question 6  You are measuring the speed of a projectile using sonar. If a frequency of 257 Hz is reflected back at 243 Hz, what is the speed of the projectile?
Question 7  In what direction was the projectile in Question 6 moving relative to the sonar device?


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