The Doppler Effect effect.
Back in high school physics class, we were studying the structure of sound waves and the topic of the Doppler effect came up. The teacher
(I should mention he had a very creative and engaging style) thought that the best way to teach the Doppler effect was by example. He sent us out of the class and told us to wait for him on the corner in front of the school. The school was on a side road, mostly residential, so there was never any traffic at that time of day. We where all good boys and girls, and despite being the tempted to just split and grab a taco, we were pretty curious to see what he was going to do.
We waited a minute, and then we saw him, coming over the hill going as fast as his 88 civic would go. As soon as he crested the hill he laid on the horn as he drove past. Sure enough, we heard the change in pitch as he flew by. He disappeared over the crest of the next hill, finally he let off the horn. So if a lesson is worth teaching, It’s worth teaching twice right? So he did a U-turn and came speeding back over the hill going the other direction. Horn blaring. But this time there was another sound, and some blue and white flashing lights.
He was pulled over right in front of us! We could hear him explaining the Doppler effect to the officer who asked if it could be demonstrated at 35 mph. Our teacher assured the officer that he would
do the demonstration at safer speeds in the future. He never lived that one down, but to this day, my classmates and I will never forget the day we learned the Doppler effect. – Andy J.
This was one of my favorite teachers of all time. He would teach physics lessons by first showing movie clips (Buckaroo Bonsai, Total Recall, Back to the Future, and 2001: Space Oddesey to name a few), then shred the physics mistakes to pieces. Kind of the original “mythbuster”. Unfortunately, he’s not teaching anymore, last I heard. Three cheers for Mr. Barbara!
i just felt i had to say STALKERS!!!!
awesome story
Wow! That’s amazing.
I bet he never lived that one down!!!!!!!!!!!!!