Visualizing the Doppler Effect

Abstract

The development of Information and Communication Technologies suggests some spectacular changes in the methods used for teaching scientific subjects. Nowadays, the development of software and hardware makes it possible to simulate processes as close to reality as we want. However, when we are trying to explain some complex physical processes, it is better to simplify the problem under study using simplified pictures of the total process by eliminating some elements that make it difficult to understand this process. In this work we focus our attention on the Doppler effect which requires the space-time visualization that is very difficult to obtain using the traditional teaching resources. We have designed digital simulations as a complement of the theoretical explanation in order to help students understand this phenomenon.