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What's Going On?
Targets block the path of some steel balls. When the steel ball hits a target it bounces back.
The longer it takes for the steel balls to return, the farther away the target is. The time it takes for a return helps determine the target's DISTANCE or RANGE.
There's More!
RADAR is short for RAdio Direction And Ranging. Radar is used to detect airplanes, ships, rain clouds, satellites and even swarms of insects! Radio waves are transmitted toward a target. They reflect from the target and come back to the antenna (just like the steel ball). The time it takes to do this is measured by an electronic clock in the radar device. The direction to the target comes from which way the antenna was pointing.
The distance is determined from this formula:
Distance = Speed x Time
Speed is the speed of the radio waves: 186,000 miles/second, the speed of light.
Time is how long it takes for the signal to go out and back. This is really the distance to the target and back. The target distance is half the distance given by the formula. The formula is derived from the mathematical definition of speed:
Speed = Distance x Time
