25 Oct
Radar guns can be found in all types of industries, from sports to law enforcement. They have become a common and useful tool in many walks of life. They possess virtually no rate of imperfection with their readings and are surprisingly accurate for being such a small and compact device. There are even companies, such as Stalker radar guns, which have been designed to make these devices available for sale to the general public. With all this in mind, how do these remarkable devices work?
The truth is simple physics. Radar guns are made to send out specific frequencies of radio waves in a particular direction. The specific waves are then reflected, or are bounced, off of objects including baseballs, automobiles, or whatever else is being measured. These waves are then returned to the radar gun’s receiving device. When these waves are reflected back and received, a frequency shift can be measured using the science behind our understanding of the Doppler Shift. And the Radar gun then uses the measurement of the frequency shift to produce an accurate result. While this may sound overly complicated, the truth is that these machines are incredible reliable. It is part of the reason as to why a reading from a police radar gun will hold up in court. They are that accurate.
Try and picture a beam of illumination form a flashlight. When an individual point a flashlight at a particular object in the dark, the object itself becomes illuminated by the reflective beams. However, picture yourself as the object that the beam is being used to illuminate. When light travels a long distance, it is still quite viewable from the perspective of the object in question. And yet, the individual pointing the flashlight may not to see you, or the object you represent, from a long distance. That is due to the beams characteristic to lose energy over a distance. The light has enough energy to reach the object but not enough energy to reflect back. Over short distances, a flashlight works quite well. However, add some more distance, the results aren’t as effective. And this is why light isn’t used as a measuring device in this manner, though most may assume that it could be the most common means. However, thanks to our understanding of physics, we know that a microwave pulse works much more effectively and can maintain enough energy to allow the radar gun to measure the frequency shift.
It is science that makes this possible, from tracking speeding cars by police and law enforcement to the accuracy of a baseball pitch. There are even more applications, with a myriad of possibilities.
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