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Doppler was intended to be a stone mason, like his father, but his poor health prevented him from doing this. Instead, Doppler studied math at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute, and then later at the University of Vienna. Doppler then applied for many different university positions, and was finally accepted at the Technical Secondary School in Prague. in 1835. Later, in 1837, he received a post at the Polytechnic Institute, teaching geometry. Doppler was not to stay here long though, his failing health causing him to move again. After this move, Doppler never stayed still, health and political uprisings keeping him constantly on the move. Doppler's most famous work is presented in his paper On the Colored Light of the Double Stars and Certain Other Stars of the Heavens. In this paper, he presented the Doppler affect, which states that if a wave source and an observer are moving towards each other, the wave will be seen to be shifted to a higher frequency, and if they are moving away from each other, the wave will be seen to be shifted to a lower frequency. Although Doppler was incorrect in thinking that this effect would explain the colors of double stars, and in fact was incorrect in his view of the structure of light (he thought light was a longitudinal wave, as opposed to a transverse wave), his principle was correct and had a great impact on physics and astronomy. |