Why do we see lighting before we here thunder?

Answer 1

Because light travels faster than sound.

Answer 2

Lightening Strikes First Because Light Travels Faster Than Sound. When You See The Flash, Count Up In Seconds Until You Hear The Thundering The Multiply IT By 10,000 And That Is How Far Away The Storm Is In Metres.

Answer 3

It's the lightning that causes the thunder, but they occur nearly simultaneously. Thunder is created when a very hot lightning stroke heats the air to about 50,000 degrees (F). This causes the air to expand very rapidly, and the shock wave of this expanding air is what we hear as thunder. It's very much like blowing into a paper bag, sealing it and then popping it; the resulting noise is also caused by the sudden expansion of air. Consequently, if you are very close to a lightning strike, you will see, hear and feel the lightning and thunder about the same time. However, if you are some distance away, you will see the lightning before you hear the thunder, because light travels faster than sound (186,291 miles per second vs. 1,088 feet per second). When you see it, count the seconds before the thunder arrives. Divide this number by 5, and you'll know approximately how many miles away the lightning was (5 seconds = 1 mile).

Answer 4

First of all: light travels further than sound. This means you won't always hear the thunder, even if you can see the lightning.

Secondly: A lightning flash has two phases. The first one can be seen, as can the second one. It is the second (larger) one that causes the air to explode and creates the loud bang.

Third: light travels much faster than sound. This means the lightning reaches you sooner than the thunder, and thus you will see a lightning strike before you hear it unless you are really close to it.

Answer 5

Because lightning travels at the speed of light (around 671,000,000 MPH), and thunder travels towards you at the speed of sound (around 760 MPH at sea level)... so guess which will reach you first!? Anyway, that's why you see lightning flash before you hear the sound of the associated sound of the thunder.
If you count the seconds between seeing the flash of lightning and the sound reaching you, you can work out how far away the storm is from where you are situated... For example, if you see lightning and 10 seconds later you hear the sound of the thunder, then the storm is approximately, 3400 metres away from you (because 760 MPH is around 340 m/s - so 304 m/s x 10 = 3400 metres distance). When you are in the middle of a ferocious storm, the lightning flash and the clap of thunder seem to occur simultaneously - that's because the 'light and sound' delays are effectively zero, as far as your eyes and ears are concerned. Thus the events are occurring right over the top of your house. It can be both frightening and awe inspiring!

Answer 6

When lightning is seen first it's because the electrical impact is being seen. After thaat the sound of that impact is heard and we call it thunder. I've heard of lightning storms that seem to have no thunder. It's probally so far away that we don't hear the thunder, even though we can see the impact. I heard of thunder storms where the sound can be heard but the impact (lightning) can't be seen. For the most part, it's the impact first (lightning), then the sound (thunder).

Answer 7

Because the light travels faster than the sound!!!

Answer 8

lightening is a discharge of current in the atmosphere to ground. Yoi see the light first because it travels much faster than sound,

Answer 9

its more of a "lovey" and demands more attention.

plus light travels about 871,000 times quicker than sound so u see things faster than u hear them..

in one minute sound can travel about 13 miles , where as light can travel about 11 million miles in one minute.

all approx based on traveling through the air.

Answer 10

speed of light is (3 x 10 ^8 m/s) is faster than the speed of sound (340 m/s)