Thunder
As many people know, thunder follows after
and is the result of lightning. Like the
famous equation seen on the right says, as
the temperature in a gas increases,
so too will the volume. Put simply: as you
heat a gas up, it expands. In the case of
lightning, it rapidly heats the to roughly
18,000 ºF causing a wave of pressure from
the force of the heated air expanding at
incredible speeds; it is this wave of
pressure that produces the sound of
thunder that can be heard up to 25 miles
from the bolt of lightning itself.
|
http://www.calctool.org/CALC/chem/c_thermo/ideal_gas.png
|
|
The reason that thunder always comes after
lightning is not only because lightning
must cause thunder, but also because the
speed of light (roughly 300,000,000 meters
per second) is much faster than the speed
of sound (roughly 340 meters per second).
A cool trick is to count how many seconds
are between when you see the flash of
lightning and hear the roar of thunder and
then divide that number by 5 to see how
many miles away from you the lightning is!
|
|
