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Pathways to Astronomy

Stephen E. Schneider

Chapter 25

The Doppler Shift - all with Video Answers

Educators


Chapter Questions

01:58

Problem 1

About how fast would you have to be driving toward a red stoplight for it to appear green?

Bettina Hanlon
Bettina Hanlon
Numerade Educator
03:10

Problem 2

The $n=3$ to $n=2$ transition of hydrogen is normally at $656.3 \mathrm{nm} .$ If it is detected from a star at $655.5 \mathrm{nm}$, what is the radial velocity of the star?

Sandro Maludze
Sandro Maludze
Numerade Educator
01:48

Problem 3

Suppose that a star is rotating at a speed of $50 \mathrm{km} / \mathrm{sec}$ at its equator. Its spectral lines will be spread out because one side of the star will be redshifted and the other side will be blueshifted. For the 656.3 -nm line of hydrogen, over how wide a range in wavelengths will the spectral line be spread?

Ren Jie Tuieng
Ren Jie Tuieng
Numerade Educator
02:04

Problem 4

Hydrogen produces a spectral line at $656.3 \mathrm{nm}$. Oxygen produces a spectral line at $645.5 \mathrm{nm}$. If you detected a galaxy with a spectral line at $655.0 \mathrm{nm}$, what Doppler shift would you derive if you assumed it was produced by hydrogen? by oxygen? How could you determine which was correct?

Suzanne W.
Suzanne W.
Numerade Educator
03:06

Problem 5

Astronomers study planets in the Solar System with radar. Suppose you were observing Venus, which orbits the Sun at $35 \mathrm{km} / \mathrm{sec},$ from the Earth, which orbits at $30 \mathrm{km} / \mathrm{sec} .$ Draw a diagram of the two planets' orbits (Venus orbits at about $0.7 \mathrm{AU}$ ) and use your diagram and vectors representing the velocities to estimate the radial velocity we would see when Venus is at its greatest elongations and when it is in conjunction with the Sun.

Manish Kumar
Manish Kumar
Numerade Educator
02:33

Problem 6

Hydrogen also produces spectral lines at radio wavelengths, notably at $21.1 \mathrm{cm} .$ If a galaxy is moving away from us at $10 \%$ of the speed of light, at what wavelength will we detect this line? Convert this into a frequency.

Narayan Hari
Narayan Hari
Numerade Educator