How does a radar gun work?

Answer 1

1. the RADAR transmitter sends out a pulse of radio waves
2. the radio waves bounce off objects
3. the RADAR receiver picks up the reflected pulses of radio waves
4. the round trip travel time is measured electronically or displayed on a 2D screen
5. the travel time tells how far away the objects are

Most modern RADARs use radio waves in the microwave band but HF band, VHF band, and UHF band radio wave have also been used.

Older RADARs use a mechanically rotated or wobbled dish antenna, but many newer RADARs use a stationary Electronically Phased Array flat plane antenna (this type of antenna is another topic just by itself).

LIDARs work the same but use light wave pulses generated by LASERs instead of radio waves.
A basic summary of how radar works is that a pulse is transmitted and any return or echo is listened for. If a return is sensed, the timing between the transmission and the reception of the echo is used to determine how far away an object is. There are some other ways in which radar works as well.
Radar is something that is in use all around us, although it is normally invisible. Air traffic control uses radar to track planes both on the ground and in the air, and also to guide planes in for smooth landings. Police use radar to detect the speed of passing motorists. NASA uses radar to map the Earth and other planets, to track satellites and space debris and to help with things like docking and maneuvering. The military uses it to detect the enemy and to guide weapons.

Radio pulses are transmitted from the antenna, reflect back off objects, and are received again by the same antenna. The time is measured from transmission to reception and used to calculate distances to the objects. In most systems the time measurement & distance calculation are a single implicit operation done directly in the display by calibrating it in distance not time units.

Answer 2

Answer: There are actually two answers to this question, depending on which form of Doppler radar is being spoken of. True Doppler radar is what is used by police officer "radar guns" to determine the speed of a motor vehicle. Another form is the Pulse-Doppler radar which is used to track the speed of weather precipitation.

Answer 3

The principle behind a radar gun is the Doppler Effect; a moving object has shorter wavelengths in front of it than behind it.

The formula is: frequency=speed/wavelength

A radar gun works by aiming radio waves at a vehicle. The radio waves reflect off of the vehicle and by comparing the frequency of the initial wave with the reflected wave, the speed of the vehicle can be determined.

Answer 4

There are two types of radar...primary and secondary.

Primary radar relies on reflections from the surface of targets (Skin paints) and secondary radar relies on a transponder in the target to amplify and reply to radar transmissions.

Primary radar navigation mainly relies on the ability to see geographical features by means of the radar.

Secondary radar navigation uses systems like Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS) which allows ground facilities to track aircraft, and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) which allows an aircraft crew to measure their distance to a ground beacon. There are other systems, but GPS is not one of them.

Answer 5

Think of it as a big ear that listens for the radar gun that the police use. There are alot of different ears that have different levels of hearing.

Answer 6

the beams go bouncy bouncy and then come back

Answer 7

It works - by measuring the time difference taken for a radio beam to travel to and from a weather system. The difference in the time indicates the speed the storm is travelling.

Answer 8

it bounces off of objects