A parked police car turns on its siren of 500 Hz. A thief in a car drives away from the parked police car at 31 m/s. The frequency of the siren as heard by the thief is (use 344 m/s for the speed of sound)

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The frequency heard by the thief can be calculated using the Doppler effect formula for a source at rest and a moving observer: f' = f * (v / (v + vo)), where f is the source frequency (500 Hz), v is the speed of sound (344 m/s), and vo is the speed of the observer (31 m/s). Substituting the values, f' = 500 * (344 / (344 + 31)) = 455 Hz.

A Parked Police Car Turns on Its Siren of 500