2007-06-24 19:23:19 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Why does lightning cause thunder at the same time it strikes? Lightning causes thunder because a strike of lightning is incredibly hot. A typical bolt of lightning can immediately heat the air to between 15,000 to 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hotter than the surface of the sun!
A lightning strike can heat the air in a fraction of a second. When air is heated that quickly, it expands violently and then contracts, like an explosion that happens in the blink of an eye. It's that explosion of air that creates sound waves, which we hear and call thunder.
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).
When lightning strikes very close by, we hear the thunder as a loud and short bang. We hear thunder from far away as a long, low rumble.
Lightning always produces thunder. When you see lightning but don't hear any thunder, the lightning is too far away from you for the sound waves to reach you.
2007-06-24 19:41:58 · answer #1 · answered by Einstein 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lightning is very hot and heats the air around it. As the atmosphere cools this superheated shaft of air rather quickly, the sudden contraction of the column of vacuum as it collapses causes the denser surrounding air to collide as it meets at the center of the now non-existant tube that the lightning initially carved. It is very much like clapping your hands and creating sound waves by collision.
2007-06-24 19:37:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lightning occurs when positive and negative charged molecules collide, causing a giant short circuit, (bang),which look for a ground. The sound created travels at a lesser speed, thereby following the flash.
Unless it's right beside you! Smells like brimstone.
...and scary!
2007-06-25 14:14:59 · answer #3 · answered by PAUL A 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Thunder is produced by a sonic shock wave caused by the rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within a bolt of lightning.
Here is a link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder
2007-06-24 19:29:17 · answer #4 · answered by Northstar 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋