It is possible to use thunder and lightning to measure how far away a storm is. Here’s how: Lightning travels at the speed of light, about 186,000 miles per second. This means that you see lightning pretty much when it happens. When lightning strikes, a noise is made which we call thunder.
When lightning strikes, a noise is made which we call thunder. Thunder travels much slower, at the speed of sound, about 1088 feet per second. It takes sound about 5 seconds to travel one mile.
Yes, there will always be thunder after you see lightning. It all depends on how close you are to the lightning strike. Thunder is the result of lightning heating up the air to as hot as 50,000 degrees.
Why does Lightning travel faster than the sound of Thunder?
That is because light travels much faster than sound waves. We can estimate the distance of the lightning by counting how many seconds it takes until we hear the thunder. It takes approximately 5 seconds for the sound to travel 1 mile. If the thunder follows the lightning almost instantly, you know the lightning is too close for comfort!
Is thunder heard before you see lightning?
Sometimes lightning may be seen before the thunder is heard and this is because the distance between the clouds and the surface is very long and the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound and hence lightning can be seen before the thunder is heard.
Why can we see light but not hear thunder?
Therefore we can see light in an instant, but it takes a while to hear thunder. Sound has another disadvantage because it tends to bounce off molecules in the air. This makes the sound travel in all different directions. The further away the source of the sound is, the more the sound gets distorted.
Yes it is possible to hear the thunder and not see the lightning during bright daylight. The thunder cloud may be close enough to hear the thunder but if the lightning is inside the cloud and with the bright surrounding sunlight you may not see the lightning.
Why is there always Thunder after lightning?
Is there always thunder after lightning? How far away is a lightning strike if you hear the thunderclap? How do I tell how far away lightning is? Why is thunder louder at the beach? What does it mean if you see lightning but don’t hear thunder? Why do I hear thunder but see no lightning? Can thunder shake a house?, and more items.
One source proposed multiple seconds later, you hear the loud rumble of thunder. How does this happen if thunder and lightning come from the same place and occur at the same time? The answer involves the speed at which sound and light travel. Light is the electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Lightning first in a thunderstorm is because the visible light waves formed by the plasma in the lightning travels to your eyes much faster than the rumble or crack of thunder reaches your ears. Therefore, when you hear rumbling thunder, the lightning bolt was far away because of.
How fast does a lightning bolt travel?
The bottom tip of a lightning bolt traveling from a cloud to the ground does travel rather quickly, although it travels at much less than the speed of light. A lightning discharge consists of electrons which have been stripped from their molecules flying through the air.
How far does Lightning travel through the air?
Although a lightning discharge usually strikes just one spot on the ground, it travels many miles through the air. When you listen to thunder, you’ll first hear the thunder created by that portion of the lightning channel that is nearest you.
How long does it take for Lightning to travel a mile?
Since you see lightning immediately and it takes the sound of thunder about 5 seconds to travel a mile, you can calculate the distance between you and the lightning.
How much faster does light travel than sound?
There are a few ways to answer this. If you’re asking whether the light from a lightning flash travels faster than sound, a couple of other folks have already answered this. The speed of light is about a million times faster than the speed of sound in air.