Propagation of sound after lightning

Asked by: Eddie Lurten

How is sound produced after lightning?

The temperature of the air in the lightning channel may reach as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. Immediately after the flash, the air cools and contracts quickly. This rapid expansion and contraction creates the sound wave that we hear as thunder.

Which comes first sound or lightning?

In nature, a lightning flash and the associated thunder occur at almost the same time in a thunderstorm. A person on the ground sees the lightning flash before hearing the thunder because light at a speed of around 300,000,000 meters per second travels much faster than sound which moves at 340 meters per second.

Does lightning produce sound energy?

A single stroke of lightning can heat the air around it to 30,000°C (54,000°F)! This extreme heating causes the air to expand explosively fast. The expansion creates a shock wave that turns into a booming sound wave, known as thunder.

Does lightning cause a sonic boom?

As the lightning bolt passes through the air, the air expands faster than the speed of sound generating a “sonic boom”. Since the sonic boom is created along the path of the lightning bolt, in effect, millions of sonic booms are created, which we hear as a rumble.

What is the sound of lightning called?

thunder

Regardless of whether lightning is positive or negative, thunder is produced the same way. Thunder is the acoustic shock wave resulting from the extreme heat generated by a lightning flash.

What is the loud sound produced during lightning called?

Thunder is caused by the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the path of a lightning bolt.

Why do we hear thunder some seconds after seeing lightning *?

If we are watching the sky, we see the lightning before we hear the thunder. That is because light travels much faster than sound waves. We can estimate the distance of the lightning by counting how many seconds it takes until we hear the thunder. It takes approximately 5 seconds for the sound to travel 1 mile.

What travels faster light or sound?

Light waves travel much faster than sound waves. Light waves do not need a medium in which to travel but sound waves do. Explain that unlike sound, light waves travel fastest through a vacuum and air, and slower through other materials such as glass or water.

Why does it take about 5 seconds before we can hear the thunder of a lightning bolt from the time that we saw it striking about 1.5 km away?

Thunder travels faster in warm air and slower in colder air, but it all is about 5 seconds per mile. As thunder moves farther away from the lightning bolt, the sound starts to dissipate. This creates the phenomena of heat lightning.

How does lightning break the sound barrier?

The channel heats to about 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit!. The rapid expansion of the heated air around the channel breaks the sound barrier, and you hear thunder. One lightning stoke can generate between 100 million and 1 billion volts of electricity!

Does lightning make a sound if it doesn’t hit the ground?

Intra-cloud lightning is the most commonly occurring one. In fact, it can be observed from great distances as well. In those cases, only a bright flash of lightning is seen, and thunder cannot be heard. These two types of lightning do not hit the ground.

Can lightning silent?

Silent lightning, otherwise known as heat lightning, is when lightning occurs but is not followed by the expected roll of thunder. When lightning is silent it is likely that it comes from a distant thunderstorm that is too far away for people to hear any noise.

Does lightning create a shockwave?

During a lightning strike, the channel temperature will be raised to about 25 000 K in a few microseconds and the pressure in and around the channel may increase above atmospheric pressure as a result of Charles’ Law (Figure 1). The resulting rapid expansion of the air creates a shock wave.

Why do clouds make sound?

Thunder is caused by lightning, which is essentially a stream of electrons flowing between or within clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. The air surrounding the electron stream is heated to as hot as 50,000 degrees Farhenheit, which is three times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Is lightning the speed of light?

The speed of lightning



While the flashes we see as a result of a lightning strike travel at the speed of light (670,000,000 mph) an actual lightning strike travels at a comparatively gentle 270,000 mph. This means it would take about 55 minutes to travel to the moon, or around 1.5 seconds to get from London to Bristol.

How long does it take to hear lightning?

The Correct Method to Calculate Lightning Distance

How does Bell make sound?

When a bell is struck, the metal vibrates. The vibrations travel through the air as sound waves. When these waves reach our ears, they make our eardrums vibrate, and we hear the sound of the bell ringing.

How does lightning happen?

In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground. When the opposite charges build up enough, this insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning.

How far away is lightning km?

For metric-system conversions, follow this method: Sound travels at about 340 m/s, so multiply the number of seconds you counted by 340, and you’ll know how many meters away lightning struck. A three-second count, then, would place the lightning strike about 1,020 m away, or roughly 1 km.

Is lightning DC or AC?

Second, lightning is a direct current (DC) that would require it to be converted to alternating current (AC) so it could be used for lights and other equipment.

Is a bullet faster than lightning?

Lightning travels at 5920 km per second. That is faster than a bullet fired from an assault rifle– 1000 metres per second.