What is a speed gun?
A speed gun measures the speed of a moving object without direct contact.
It uses electromagnetic radiation (like radio waves) and the Doppler effect to calculate speed.
Commonly used by law enforcement, coaches, and various industries to track motion.
What is the Doppler effect?
It’s the change in frequency or wavelength of waves as the source and observer move relative to each other.
Example: A whistle's pitch sounds higher when moving towards the observer and lower when moving away.
This principle is used in speed guns to calculate speed based on frequency shift.
How do speed guns work?
Speed guns emit radio waves, and the reflected waves are received by the device.
If the object is moving towards the gun, the returning waves have a higher frequency (Doppler shift).
The speed is calculated using the difference in frequencies, with the speed of light (c) factored in.
The faster the object moves, the larger the frequency difference, which allows accurate speed measurements.
Do speed guns have shortcomings?
Radio waves can diverge, making it difficult to target a single object, leading to inaccurate readings.
Multiple vehicles in the radar's range can also interfere with the readings.
LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) guns are replacing radar guns as they use laser light, which has better targeting due to low divergence.
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