Question

What is the Doppler Effect and redshift?

Answer 1

Hint: When attempting questions like the one given to us above keep in mind the different concepts regarding waves and the various factors and terms associated with it. Do keep in mind the different phenomena caused by different types of waves and what causes them.

Complete step by step answer:
Doppler’s effect is a phenomenon related to waves. This unique effect is observed whenever a particular source of wave is moving with respect to an observer, and can be described as the effect produced by that particular moving source of wave where there is an apparent upward shift in frequency.
In simpler terms Doppler’s effect can be described as the lengthening or shortening of wavelengths when a source is moving away or objects are approaching. This effect occurs for both sound and light waves, because light travels much faster than sound waves, even a million times faster if need be.
Originally this effect was used as a way to explain why the pitch or frequency of sound would change depending on the source of sound approaching or if the source was going away from the observer, meaning the distance between the source and observer was changing and it would result in change of frequency of the sound wave.
There are two particular shifts connected with Doppler’s effect; namely redshift and blueshift. The term redshift can apply to any part of the electromagnetic spectrum which includes x-rays, infrared rays et cetera. For simpler understanding it means that if gamma waves are shifted to radio waves or shift to a lower frequency, it is termed as a red shift, and if the opposite happens meaning shifting to a higher frequency it is termed as a blue shift.
Red shift can be determined as the change in wavelength of light, which enables the light to be shifted to the red part of the color spectrum and hence named as red shift.

Note:
The Doppler’s effect is an interesting topic in the field of astronomy, as this effect is used to prove how the universe is constantly expanding. The belief that the universe is ever expanding is supported by the Doppler’s effect and further observations noted in electromagnetic waves emitted by stars in galaxies farther than our own.