Is it true that the amount of time (in seconds) between seeing lightening and hearing thunder can be translated as the amount of miles away the storm is? (eg 10 seconds between lightening and thunder means the storm is 10 miles away?)
2006-07-15 04:33:46 · 10 answers · asked by lovethesun 3 in Education & Reference ➔ Other - Education
If the thunder you hear is associated with the lightning that you saw, then yes, you can compute the distance. However, there is a lot of lightning that is cloud-to-cloud and you don't always see. The thunder you hear may have resulted from lightning that you did not see and if you compute a distance from what you did see using thunder from lightning you did not see, then you wind up with a wrong result. So, the answer is a definite maybe.
2006-07-15 04:49:26 · answer #1 · answered by Hums2oldies 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not quite. The light from the lightening reaches you almost instantly (light is pretty darn fast) and the sound travels at about 800 miles/hour which comes to about 1/5th of a mile/second. This means that when you see the lightening for every 5 seconds it's one mile away.
My guess is that the 'formula' was changed over time just for people who don't like math, which seems to be most of the world.
2006-07-15 11:46:01 · answer #2 · answered by jcb2354 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The flash of a lightning strike and resulting thunder occur at roughly the same time. But light travels at 186,000 miles in a second, almost a million times the speed of sound. Sound travels at the slower speed of one-fifth of a mile in the same time. So the flash of lightning is seen before thunder is heard. By counting the seconds between the flash and the thunder and dividing by 5, you can estimate your distance from the strike (in miles).
http://weathereye.kgan.com/cadet/lightning/thunder.html
2006-07-15 11:37:48 · answer #3 · answered by merigold00 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could calculate the actual time by comparing the speed of light and the speed of sound. The speed of light is so fast, for all intents and purposes, it could be considered instantaneous. The speed of sound is roughly 770 miles per hour, just less than a 2 miles a second. So, one second would actually be about 2 miles away. (you asked!)
2006-07-15 11:42:12 · answer #4 · answered by woodwinman 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It deals with some complex physics and Maths formulae.Because we should take note of the permitivity of air,temperature of air and due to the temparature the speed of the sound varies .SO,.Ask a genius like Einstein
2006-07-15 11:39:48 · answer #5 · answered by MaxMetallica 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
3 km
2006-07-15 11:48:00 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no
there isn't a storm every time there's thunder n lightenin
where did u hear it its bogus
2006-07-15 11:37:18 · answer #7 · answered by Thewall 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yeah based on the speed of sound being around 750 mph you can do the math.
2006-07-15 11:44:28 · answer #8 · answered by Bob 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes it is an old wives tale but i believe there is some truth in it i have thought that since i was a child
2006-07-15 11:36:59 · answer #9 · answered by omallory_us 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's true. Or at least that's what my father taught me
2006-07-15 11:43:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋