ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

the doppler effect

The Doppler effect is a cool thing that happens when something is moving. It's like when you're in a car, and a straight line of trees starts to bend as you speed up. The Doppler effect is something like that.

When something is moving, like a car or a plane, the sound it makes changes depending on how fast it's going. When it moves closer to us, the sound becomes a little bit higher and when it moves away from us the sound becomes a bit lower. That's the Doppler effect.