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Why is there a gap between seeing lighting and hearing thunder?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
Lightning travels at 186,000 miles per second, while sound travels much, much, much., much, slower, typically about 1 mile every 5 seconds. The light simply reaches you long before the clap!
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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Why is there a delay between the lightning an thunder?
There is a delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder because the speed of light (lightning) is much faster than the speed of sound (thunder). Thus, you SEE lightning first, and then you HEAR thunder later.
Why are thunder storms usually accompanied by lighting and thunder?
They ALWAYS happen together. The lightning you see is an electrical discharge from ice crystals rubing together in clouds. This makes an almighty crack sound, and a bright light is observed. You hear the thunder after you see the lightning because sounds travels slower than light. But in fact, the sound and the light came to be at the same time. The further away you are from the strom the larger the delay between seeing the light and hearing the sound is.
What is the difference between lightning and thunder?
Thunder is what you hear, lightning is what you see, but both are due to electrical discharge in the atmosphere. They can seem to be separated in time to an observer (you see the lightening before you hear the thunder) because of the large difference in the speed of sound and the speed of light. If you are significant distance away (a few miles or kilometers), the light from the discharge will reach you almost instantly, but the sound can take several seconds to arrive. In fact you can measure the distance from you to the lightening in this way: for each second delay between seeing it and hearing it, the lightening bolt is approximately 300 meters, or 1000 ft away. Thunder is merely the rumbling sound that lightning creates. You hear the thunder after you see the lighting because light travels faster than sound. Lightning is the light that is emitted, and thunder is the sound.
Why do you see thunder after you see the flash of lightning?
You don't see thunder. You hear thunder. You hear thunder after seeing the lightning because light travels faster than sound. The further the storm away is, the bigger the time between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder.
Why does thunder happen ten seconds after lighting strikes?
It doesn't always. Thunder is the noise made by the lightning... it is a sonic shock wave which produces the noise we hear as thunder. The time taken for the light to reach us and the time taken for the sound to reach us differ because of the differing speeds of light and sound. As the speed of sound is so much slower than that of light we see a flash almost as soon as it happens, but we only hear the sound a lot later.... the lightning is approximately one kilometre distant for every 2.9 seconds which elapse between seeing the flash and hearing the crack. If there is a ten second delay then the lightning strike is a little under 3.5 kilometres away.
If the time lag between seeing the flash of lighting and hearing the thunder is 4 seconds how far away is the lighting?
Compare the speed of light to the speed of sound for your answer. In any explosion, you see the flash before you hear the noise.
Why is there a delay between the lightning an thunder?
There is a delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder because the speed of light (lightning) is much faster than the speed of sound (thunder). Thus, you SEE lightning first, and then you HEAR thunder later.
How far can you hear thunder?
Typically, thunder can be heard up to 10 miles away from a lightning strike. Sound travels much slower than light, so there is a delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.
Devised and execute a strategy that would allow you to determine the distance to a lighting strike given a five second time difference between seeing the lighting and hearing the thunder?
Determine the difference in the speed of the light in air from the lightning strike (3 * 105 km/sec) and the speed of the sound in air from the thunder (3 * 10-1 km/sec) and calculate the distance to the lightning.In 5 seconds the light travels so far that it can for all intents and purposes be considered instantaneous. We are left with the speed of the sound of thunder. 5 seconds is 1,5 km.
Why do you not hear thunder right away?
If you mean hearing thunder right after a lightning, it is because sound travels slower than light, and thus, you would hear the thunder a bit later than seeing a lightning strike.
Why can't you see thunder?
Thunder is our name for the sound made by lightning. The reason there is (usually) a delay between when you see the bolt of lightning and hear the thunder is that light travels more quickly than does sound. This is the reason that you can count seconds between seeing lightning and hearing thunder to figure out how close the lightning is to you. When the lightning is closer to you, the sound doesn't take as much time to travel to your ears and thus the gap between the lightning and thunder is shorter. So you can't see thunder because it's merely a sound - but you can see the source of that sound.
Why are thunder storms usually accompanied by lighting and thunder?
They ALWAYS happen together. The lightning you see is an electrical discharge from ice crystals rubing together in clouds. This makes an almighty crack sound, and a bright light is observed. You hear the thunder after you see the lightning because sounds travels slower than light. But in fact, the sound and the light came to be at the same time. The further away you are from the strom the larger the delay between seeing the light and hearing the sound is.
What is the difference between lightning and thunder?
Thunder is what you hear, lightning is what you see, but both are due to electrical discharge in the atmosphere. They can seem to be separated in time to an observer (you see the lightening before you hear the thunder) because of the large difference in the speed of sound and the speed of light. If you are significant distance away (a few miles or kilometers), the light from the discharge will reach you almost instantly, but the sound can take several seconds to arrive. In fact you can measure the distance from you to the lightening in this way: for each second delay between seeing it and hearing it, the lightening bolt is approximately 300 meters, or 1000 ft away. Thunder is merely the rumbling sound that lightning creates. You hear the thunder after you see the lighting because light travels faster than sound. Lightning is the light that is emitted, and thunder is the sound.
Why do you see thunder after you see the flash of lightning?
You don't see thunder. You hear thunder. You hear thunder after seeing the lightning because light travels faster than sound. The further the storm away is, the bigger the time between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder.
How much time will elapse between seeing and hearing an event that happens 400 meters from you?
A fraction of a second
What are some dangers of thermal energy?
There is no such thing as "heat lightning." It is a misleading term that somebody came up with and it caught on, but delve through any textbook on meteorology and you will not find it, because it doesn't exist. What most people call "heat lightning", essentially seeing flashes of lighting on the horizon but not hearing thunder with it, is simply a situation where the observer is too far away from the thunderstorm to hear the thunder. But there is definitely thunder. Remember, light travels faster and further than sound can.
Why both seeing and hearing are important?
Seeing and hearing are important but not necessary to live a full life. Seeing and hearing gives you the ability to drive a car, ride a bike, work a job, and watch your kids grow up.
