Talk:Acoustic Doppler effect

Pfalstad, I'm sorry but I removed your comments to "cut this page down" as I have reverted the page back to it's original state when I started making my changes. Instead I have decided to leave my changes here for consideration and correction if I am wrong.

Ok, I started working on the doppler effect from scratch, much as Doppler himself must have years ago, and have come to the following equations.

Let $$t_0$$ be the start of time and $$t_1$$ be the end of time.

Let $$x_1 = v_s * (t_1 - t_0)$$, where $$v_s$$ is the velocity of the source w/ respect to the medium

Let $$x_2 = v_o * (t_1 - t_0)$$, where $$v_o$$ is the velocity of the observer w/ respect to the medium

Let $$x_3 = v_w * (t_1 - t_0)$$, where $$v_w$$ is the velocity of the wave through the medium

($$v_w$$ is what I chose to keep constant across my calculations because sound waves travel at a constant velocity through air of a continuous nature)

Let $$(t_1 - t_0) = \frac {1}{f_a}$$, the time for one wave to travel the distance of one emitted wavelength from a non-moving source as seen by a non-moving observer.

then $$f_e = f_a * \frac {v_w}{(v_w - v_s + v_o)}$$, the effective frequency heard by an observer.

Serway-Beichner Physics for Scientists and Engineers fifth ed. p.531-533 has two separate equations, one for an observer in motion with respect to a stationary source and one visa versa.

They chose to hold the wavelength as a constant for the equation with a stationary source and moving observer. Why would they be inconsistent? By doing this they allow the apparent velocity of the wave to be $$ v'>v_w $$. This of course can't be so because we know there to be a limit to what velocity sound can travel at through air.

This all being said/questioned, I'll fall back on Pfalstad who thought that there should not be two separate pages on Doppler's Effect, one for sound and one for light.