Question #482da

1 Answer
Jun 1, 2015

There aren't any right answers in the four choices (although I don't really understand what you mean by "sound level").

Due to the Doppler effect, the frequency that an observer perceives (it's called the apparent frequency) is different from the real frequency, the frequency that a source makes.

The Doppler effect only affects frequency and wavelength.
It doesn't affect either the speed of a sound, the speed of the observer, the speed of the source or the amplitude of a sound.

The apparent frequency is given by :

f' = f*(v_(wave) + v_(obs))/(v_(wave)-v_s),

where v_(wave) is the speed of sound in the medium, v_(obs) is the speed of the observer (v_(obs) > 0 when the source is in front of him) and v_s is the speed of the source (v_s > 0 when the observer is in front of it).

In our case, we don't care about v_(wave), we suppose that v_(obs) = 0, and there is a source approaching the observer so v_s > 0.

Now, we have :

f' = f*(v_(wave))/(v_(wave)-v_s) => f' > f.

The wavelength is given by :

lambda = v_(wave)/f.

Therefore :

lambda = v_(wave)/f > lambda' = v_(wave)/(f').

So the frequency that the observer perceives increases and the wavelength decreases.

Thus, there aren't any right answers in your choices.