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How can a brass band and a steam train help you understand the universe?
The Doppler effect causes shifts in wavelengths of sound and light and is a major factor in demonstrating the existence of an ever-expanding universe. The theory inherited its name from the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who first proposed the theory in 1842. It was a Dutch mathematician, Christoph Hendrik Diederik Buys Ballot, who successfully proved Christian Doppler’s theory using brass musicians and a steam train in 1845.
At a Loughborough railway station, with the help of the Great Central Railway and the Hathern Brass Band, conductor Charles Hazlewood recreates the famous experiment.
Video by Thom Hoffman
Animation by Ali Clarke
