"Stevo" the Duck teaches you something cool.

"I am a duck. My name is Stevo. Katie is delusional from lack of sleep."

I really don't have time or the energy to tell you about my humdrum life. So instead, I'm copy-and-pasting my extra credit assignment for Physics. It's about a duck named Stevo. And the Doppler Effect. And universal expansion. But mostly about a duck named Stevo. Enjoy and be knowledgeable.


"Suppose Mr. McGowan is going fishing in a pond. He notices a duck, who he names “Stevo” moving across the water—Mr. McGowan observes that Stevo is creating waves in the water, and catches up with part of the waves as it swims forward, causing the waves in front of Stevo to appear “bunched up” and noticeably more dense than the waves behind him. The “bunched up” waves in front of Stevo have a shorter wavelength (λ), and thus, a higher frequency (f), whereas those behind him have a longer wavelength and a lower frequency. This is called the Doppler Effect.

"This concept can also be applied to sound. Stevo the Duck has now realized that a motorboat would be a quicker way to travel across the pond, and has rented one. As Mr. McGowan watches Stevo maneuver the boat, he notices that the boat seems to emit a higher pitch when approaching, and a lower pitch when heading away from Mr. McGowan. This is because the soundwaves have a shorter wavelength relative to Mr. McGowan and thus, a higher frequency and a higher pitch.

"Later that day, Stevo the Duck fell into a vat of radioactive waste and as a result acquired super-speed and began to emit a strange light. As Stevo travelled through space at extraordinary speeds, Mr. McGowan tracks him with an extremely high-tech telescope he got for Christmas and notices that the Doppler Effect applies to the light Stevo emits. When Stevo moves toward Earth, his light appears more blue, but when he moves away, his light appears more red. Mr. McGowan directs his attentions to other galaxies, and notes that practically all light is more red than objects closer to Earth—thus, he deduces that the bodies of the universe must be expanding, or travelling away from each other. This evidence supports the Big Bang theory, as it shows that the universe has most likely been expanding since a “zero” point, at which the expansion began."