RADARRADAR

By Tony Kim and Ross Chu

Block DPhysics

RADAR which stands for RAdio Detec-tion And Ranging was developed by Britain in the late 1930’s, during WW2

Before the war, Radars were used to detect objects through the usage of radio waves

Now, they use RADAR to determine the location of moving or standing ob-jects such as planes, ships, etc.

Background on RADAR

A RADAR basically first sends out ra-dio waves in order to discover the lo-cation of the desired object

Once the collective group of radio waves has found its object, it will scatter and reflect off it

These signals are then picked up by the receiver which translates the electrical waves into a monitor

How does a RADAR work?

The Doppler Effect, learned in Chap-ter 16, is displayed through these radars

The frequency of these radio waves changes as the location relative to the antenna and the object changes

(Continued)

Uses for military: locating airplanes, ships, missiles, etc.; targets buildings and other objects;

Uses for astronomy: locating and viewing objects in space

Uses for ocean: locating ships and ani-mals

Uses for air: airlines utilize radars to en-sure the safety and location of various planes

Benefits of Radar

The benefits of radars can be re-versed if used for wrong purposes (ex. Missiles)

Dependency on radars can be disas-trous for airlines or ships that can lose radio transmission through jam-ming, severe weather, etc.

Low risk of radiation due to transmis-sion

Drawbacks of Radar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFoh7_JssuQ

Video on Radar