Can you really count the..........?

Question

seconds between lightning and thunder to figure how far away a storm is?

Answer 1

Yes. Start a stop watch the moment you see the lightning flash and press the stop button when you hear the thunder. See the elapsed time and multiply by velocity of sound to get the distance. The velocity of sound in air is approx. 330 m/sec.

Answer 2

Yes.

Thunder rumbles because you get soundwaves coming from different parts of the storm. The speed of sound (760 mph, 1224 km/h) is very much less than the speed of light (186,000 mp/s, 300,000 km/s). So you see a lightning flash almost immediately it happens while the sound can take several seconds to reach an observer. If you count the gap between the lighting and the thunder, you can tell how far away the storm is. For every kilometre count 3 seconds, for every mile count 5 seconds. So if you count 15 seconds, the storm is 5 km or 3 m away from where you are.

Answer 3

Roughly speaking, yes. Theres even equipment on the market that kind of works on that principle but simply put, yes.

By knowing the speed of sound (320 m/s^-1 depending on weather conditions)

So if the difference between flash and thunder is 3 seconds you know it is roughly 1km away.

Answer 4

Sure. Sound travels at about 343 m/s (meters per second) which is approx 1125 feet per second. A mile is 5280 feet, so it takes sound a little less than 5 seconds (4.7 seconds) to travel one mile.

Answer 5

This is the speed of Sound.
1128 ft/sec
or 0.2136 MPS

close to a Mile every 5 seconds.

Answer 6

One easy way to "prove" it to yourself is by paying attention at the next fireworks show you go to. Notice the delay between the flash and the bang.