There was a thunderstorm last night and it got me thinking, I couldnt figure out how thunder is made! I am really interested in this so any possible answer would help!
2006-07-13 04:15:24 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
ok this is a 50/50 thing, hehe half the people ar ewrong and half are correct. It is in fact the sound shockwave expanding after a lightning strike. You mite think well why does it make a sound when there hasn't been any lightning for a wee while, this is due to the "speed of sound" measurement. If you want to have a bit of fun one night when there is a storm, count from when you see a lightning flash, to when you hear the thunder. this can be interpreted as for every 3 seconds you count, the lightning bolt was approximately 1 mile away....have fun!
2006-07-13 04:24:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
This info i got on websites.
1.http://www.suzy.co.nz/suzysworld/Factpage.asp?FactSheet=188
* Thunder is the sound of air exploding as lightening heats it up. The air rushing out sets up a sound wave of vibrating air.
* A strike of lightening immediately heats up the air to between 15,000 and 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the Suns surface.
* When the air is heated so quickly it expands violently and then contracts which causes an explosion of air that creates the sound of thunder.
* Lightening and Thunder happen at exactly the same time but because light travels faster than the speed of sound, you always see the lightening first then hear the thunder a few seconds later. The longer the gap between the lightening and thunder the further away the thunderstorm is.
2.http://www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk/page31g.html
You can’t have thunder without lightning first. When lightning happens you can heat up the air to about 30,000 degrees very suddenly. When something heats up it expands, and this expansion happens so quickly that it is like a shock wave.
2006-07-13 06:19:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thunder is actually the sound of lightning.
To quote directly from wikipedia...
Thunder is the sound of the shockwave caused during a thunderstorm when lightning rapidly heats and expands the air in and directly around the lightning channel (bolt) into plasma, producing acoustic shock waves in the atmosphere indentified as thunder.
2006-07-13 04:19:14 · answer #3 · answered by HP 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thunder is not made but a by product of lightning as it heads toward the grounds. Lightning is electrically charged moving at a rapid pace through the air. The air is pushed away creating a sound which people call thunder.
2006-07-13 04:21:06 · answer #4 · answered by RedCloud_1998 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lightning bolts are extremely hot, with temperatures of 30,000 to 50,000 degrees F. That's hotter than the surface of the sun! When the bolt suddenly heats the air around it to such an extreme, the air instantly expands, sending out a vibration or shock wave we hear as an explosion of sound. This is thunder. If you are near the stroke of lightning you’ll hear thunder as one sharp crack. When lightning is far away, thunder sounds more like a low rumble as the sound waves reflect and echo off hillsides, buildings and trees. Depending on wind direction and temperature, you may hear thunder for up to fifteen or twenty miles.
2006-07-13 04:19:24 · answer #5 · answered by courtney m 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rapid air pressure change from the heat in the lightning. The air around the lightning rapidly expands sending a shock wave that we call thunder. As far as clouds hitting each other goes, think about it, clouds are pretty much steam, so, does steam hitting steam make thunder? (no)
2006-07-13 04:19:08 · answer #6 · answered by satanorsanta 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thunder is a supersonic presser wave of sound caused by lightning passing through clouds or water vapor. As the electrons push through our atmosphere they displace the particles ( water, air), since the electrons are trying to travel at the speed of light, and there are so many electrons the displacement in the atmosphere and then the vacuum left just behind the lightning bolt, forces the air to move faster then sound and "viola" thunder.
2006-07-13 04:25:54 · answer #7 · answered by sambw 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lightning comes slightly earlier than thunder...they extremely a lot ensue at the same time. yet you'll see the lightning first. Thunder is purely the sound waves created by employing the disturbance contained in the air that the lightning makes.
2016-11-06 07:52:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
thunder is the sound that lightning makes
the reason u hear it sometime after the lightning instead of at the same time is bcuz light travels faster than sound so u see it b4 u hear it
i heard u can know how far away a lightning is striking by counting how long after u see it u hear it i think its 1 second is 1 mile or something like that
2006-07-13 05:43:23 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thunder is the sound created by rapidly expanding air along the discharge of lightning.
2006-07-13 04:18:01 · answer #10 · answered by Jake 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋