Solution to 2008 Problem 55


The Doppler effect for light causes a photon emitted with wavelength \lambda_0 to be detected with wavelength
\begin{align*}\lambda = \lambda_0 \sqrt{\frac{c + v}{c - v}}\end{align*}
where v is the relative velocity of the source and the observer. This equation can be solved for v as follows.
\begin{align*}& & \frac{\lambda}{\lambda_0} &= \sqrt{\frac{c + v}{c - v}} \\&\Longrightarrow&\frac{4}{3} ...
Therefore, answer (A) is correct.


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