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Light travels through air about 873,000 times as fast as sound does. If lightning strikes two kilometers away, it takes the light 6.67 microseconds to reach you (a microsecond is a millionth of a second), but it takes the sound 5.83 seconds to reach you. You can use that difference to determine how far away a lightning strike is. If you start a stopwatch as soon as you see a lightning flash then stop it as soon as you hear the thunder, then divide the time in seconds by 2.91 km/s, the quotient is the distance of the lightning in kilometers (divide by 4.69 miles/s to get the distance of the lightning in miles).
What else can I help you with?
Why are you hearing thundering after lightning?
A lightning flash travels at the speed of light. The sound of thunder travels much slower. Therefore, we see the flash before we hear the thunder.
Does thunder have a flash?
Thunder is the sound produced by lightning as it rapidly heats and expands the air. It is not a flash like lightning, but rather the result of the shock wave created by the sudden expansion of the air.
How is thunder produced and how far away does the lightning strikes if the thunder is heard 15 seconds after the lightning is seen?
Thunder - is the result of a lightning flash. The flash causes the surrounding air to move away from the source at 300 metres/second. An approximate calculation for the relationship between the lightning flash to hearing the thunder, is 5 seconds per mile.
Why do we see lightning before we hear thunder?
We see lightning before we hear thunder because light travels faster than sound. Lightning, which is a flash of light, travels at the speed of light (about 299,792 kilometers per second), while thunder, the sound produced by the rapid expansion of heated air, travels at the speed of sound (approximately 343 meters per second in air). This difference in speeds causes us to see the bright flash of lightning first, followed by the sound of thunder after a delay. The greater the distance from the lightning strike, the longer the delay between seeing the flash and hearing the thunder.
Why does thunder ussually occur during storms that have lightning flashes?
The thunder is the sound of lightning but you only hear the thunder after the flash because lightning is faster than the speed of sound.
Why are you hearing thundering after lightning?
A lightning flash travels at the speed of light. The sound of thunder travels much slower. Therefore, we see the flash before we hear the thunder.
Do people see lightning before the sound of thunder reaches us?
Yes - since light travels faster than sound, you will see the lightning flash before hearing the sound of the thunder.
Does thunder have a flash?
Thunder is the sound produced by lightning as it rapidly heats and expands the air. It is not a flash like lightning, but rather the result of the shock wave created by the sudden expansion of the air.
What is flash of lightning and the thunder that follows?
thunderstorm
How is thunder produced and how far away does the lightning strikes if the thunder is heard 15 seconds after the lightning is seen?
Thunder - is the result of a lightning flash. The flash causes the surrounding air to move away from the source at 300 metres/second. An approximate calculation for the relationship between the lightning flash to hearing the thunder, is 5 seconds per mile.
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.
Does thunder cause lightning or does lightning cause thunder. Explain?
Lightning causes thunder. Lightning is a massive electrical discharge that you see as a bolt or flash of light. Thunder is the sound caused when the lightning superheats the air, creating a shockwave.
Is thunder heard before the flash of lightning?
not if you are standing far enough away and not at all the sound of the lightning is thunder but if you were standing directly underneath it the sound would come at the exact moment of the light
Why does thunder ussually occur during storms that have lightning flashes?
The thunder is the sound of lightning but you only hear the thunder after the flash because lightning is faster than the speed of sound.
Why do sometimes hear thunder at about the same time you see flash of lightning but other times you hear thunder after the flash?
If you hear the thunder almost at the same time as the lightning flash - the storm is directly overhead. Usually - the sound of thunder arrives a few seconds after the lightning, because light travels much faster than sound.
What is The loud crashing or rumbling noise heard after a flash of lightning?
Thunder is the loud crashing or rumbling noise heard after a flash of lightning. This happens because lightning heats the air around it, causing it to rapidly expand and create a shock wave that we hear as thunder.
What is the The loud crashing noise heard after a flash of lightning?
Thunder
