general
2007-03-01 03:06:22 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
actually its when lightening strikes it burns oxygen that's the air that closes into the vacuum that was created and that's what makes the noise
2007-03-01 04:28:50 · answer #1 · answered by babylove9904 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ignore the other answer. Thunder is produced when "static electricity" builds up in a cloud. The opposite charge builds up on the ground. When the charges are great enough, they find a way to connect through the air (just like a spark from a wire to a ground or another wire). The air becomes rapidly super-heated and expands (explodes, really), causing the thunderclap, which echoes around the cloud or between the ground and the clouds, causing the "rolling" effect.
2007-03-01 11:17:48 · answer #2 · answered by thylawyer 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Thylawyer is only partially correct, as lawyers usually are. The sound is produced when air refills the void. Same effect caused by a speeding bullet. Sound low frequency waves are generated when the molecules slam back together filling the void.
2007-03-01 12:20:02 · answer #3 · answered by rico3151 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sound you hear is air being super heated quickly. Thus expanding (exploding the air) at a rate beyond the sound barrier giving you the boom that is associated with thunder.
2007-03-01 11:18:39 · answer #4 · answered by Steven S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When lightning strikes, it very rapidly heats the air. When it is gone, the air cools very quickly, what you're hearing is the air cooling with a huge clap, b/c of how rapidly it is happening.
Sounds like a pretty cyclic and redundant response but that's the only way I know to put it. Hope it helped ya!
2007-03-01 12:30:26 · answer #5 · answered by Rick R 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Air suddenly expands due to the heat of a lightning bolt and just as suddenly contracts after it passes, creating a shockwave we perceive as thunder.
2007-03-01 11:18:02 · answer #6 · answered by Duane R-H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the light energy is converted into mechanical sound waves by a processes called phototransmutaudation.
2007-03-01 11:10:24 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋