Question

A physicist drives through a stop light. When he is pulled over, he tells the police officer that the Doppler shift made the red light of wavelength 660 nm appear green to him, with a wavelength of 555 nm. The police officer writes out a traffic citation for speeding. How fast was the physicist traveling, according to his own testimony?

Answer 1

Answer:

Speed of physicist car is 0.036c or 1.08 x 10⁷ m/s .

Explanation:

Doppler Effect is defined as the change in frequency or wavelength of the wave as the source or/and observer moving away or towards each other.

In this case, the Doppler effect equation in terms of wavelength is :

$\lambda_{s} = \lambda_{o}\sqrt{\frac{1-\frac{v}{c} }{1+\frac{v}{c} } }$       ......(1)

Here $\lambda_{s}$ is source wavelength, $\lambda_{o}$ is observed wavelength, v is speed of the observer and c is the speed of light.

Given :

Source wavelength, $\lambda_{s}$ = 660 nm = 660 x 10⁻⁹ m

Observed wavelength, $\lambda_{0}$ = 555 nm = 555 x 10⁻⁹ m

Substitute these values in the equation (1).

$555\times10^{-9} } = 660\times10^{-9} \sqrt{\frac{1-\frac{v}{c} }{1+\frac{v}{c} } }$

$\sqrt{\frac{1-\frac{v}{c} }{1+\frac{v}{c} } } = 0.84$

${\frac{1-\frac{v}{c} }{1+\frac{v}{c} } } = (0.84)^{2} = 0.7056$

$1-\frac{v}{c}=0.7056+0.7056\frac{v}{c}$

$\frac{v}{c}=\frac{0.2944}{8.056}$

$v = 0.036c=0.036\times3\times10^{8}$

v = 1.08 x 10⁷ m/s