We were doing some physics problems with sound and the Doppler effect today. One problem had two scenarios where one was source moving away and the other was the listener moving away. The math gave two answers that were close but not the same. I don’t understand how they can be different when speed is relative.
In: Physics
Sound is a pressure wave in air, and that means the air is a necessarily privileged reference frame. While you might be able to consider the moving object as being stationary that would imply a bulk movement of the air in relation to it which would impact the calculation.
Sound moves at… well, the speed of sound in that substance. If the substrate of the sound, typically air, is moving then the speed of sound would seem to change depending on the direction.
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