Sense Perception’s Role in Natural Sciences
Today in Physics HL class, we learned about the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect is the phenomenon where waves are lengthened or compressed either when an observer moves towards the source, or the source moves towards the observer. This is most commonly observed through when an ambulance rushes by an observer and makes a sound that seems to change pitch.
It seems that this phenomenon is supported by the use of sense perception in the form of hearing, as when moving objects emitting sound waves passes by an observer, the observer hears a change in pitch. This leads me to wonder how this phenomenon was first discovered. I know that sense perception may sometimes be unreliable, as there are different illnesses that can affect hearing, vision, taste, and smell. This leads me to believe that discovering new ideas in natural sciences using the way of knowing of sense perception may lead to unreliable conclusions as sometimes sense perception is unreliable.
How can the observer explain the change in pitch of a passing ambulance as being a cause of compressed and lengthened sound waves using their hearing? There are many factors that can explain the change in pitch that do not relate to the Doppler Effect. The ambulance could have simply changed its sir...
