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Yes.

Lightning reaches our eyes before thunder reaches our ears because light travels faster than sound.

Light travels at the rate of 186,282 miles per second, while sound is much slower, 1,087 feet, or about 1/5 of a mile, per second.

You can tell how far away a storm is by counting the seconds between the lightning flash and the clap of thunder, every 5 seconds between the two equals one mile!Lightning causes the thunder, so it actually has to precede the thunder. If you are close to the lightning, they may seem to occur simultaneously. Since light travels faster than sound, the thunder will always lag behind the lightning.

Light moves at 299 million metres per second. Sound moves at 340 metres per second (at sea level in air). When lightning occurs, the light and the creation of the sound occur at the same time and place. Thunder is due to the rapid expansion of superheated air which the lightning causes.

The flash of light (lightning) arrives first because light waves move at roughly a million times faster than sound waves. By counting the seconds between flash and sound (assuming the storm is not so violent that lightning flashes and thunder claps cannot be paired off), you can determine how close it was to you.

In the English system, each 5 seconds difference is about a mile away. In the metric system, every 3 seconds is about a kilometer. Differences in elevation can make this imprecise.

If the flash and sound are simultaneous, the source of the lightning is very close, so you might want to go inside immediately and if possible, not touch anything connected to the house's electrical, Plumbing, or wired telephone systems. If you are outdoors, stay out from under trees and away from tall objects and metal fences. Keep a low profile, even if it means ducking into a ditch.

Remember that electricity seeks the path of least resistance to ground, and the rain that accompanies the lightning enhances that effect, so stay dry and indoors - and avoid conductive systems as described above.

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12y ago

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