The Radar Detector Source

Posts Tagged ‘point sources’

A police cruiser has an unusual radar speed trap set up. It has two transmitting antennae at the edge of a main road that runs north and south. One antenna is 2.0 m[west] of the other, and they are both fed from a common transmitter with a frequency of 3.0 x10^9 Hz. These antennae can be considered as point sources of continuous radio waves. The trap is set for cars travelling south. A student drives his car along an east-west road that crosses the main road at a level intersection 100 m[north] of the radar trap. The student’s car has a "radar detector", so he hears a series of beeps as he drives west through the intersection. If the time interval between successive quiet spots is 1/5 s, as he crosses the main road, what is his speed?