Lightning travels at the speed of light, about 186,000 miles per second.Thunder travels much slower, at the speed of sound, about 1088 feet per second. It takes sound about 5 seconds to travel one mile. You can observe this for yourself.
What is faster sound or lightning?
Yes! Lightning heats the air and causes shock waves.But you see lightning before you hear thunder because light, which travels a million times faster than sound, arrives almost instantly. Sound, on the other hand, takes about five seconds to travel one mile.
Is light faster or slower than sound?
The speed of sound through air is about 340 meters per second. It’s faster through water and it’s even faster through steel. Light will travel through a vacuum at 300 million meters per second.This speed difference does become apparent, for example, with lightning.
Is lightning the speed of sound?
When lightning strikes, a bright flash of light is generated. Light travels at a constant 186,000 miles/second, which means that we see the flash immediately as it happens. The intense heat of the lightning generates a sound called thunder which is transmitted through the air at the speed of sound.
Is thunder faster than the speed of sound?
Thunder travels at the speed of sound and has a value of about 340 meters per second. The speed of sound in air at sea level moves about 1 mile every 5 seconds.Note that the speed of light is much faster than the speed of thunder.
Why is thunder slower than lightning?
The reason we see a flash of lightning before hearing thunder is because light travels faster than sound. The speed of light depends on what it is moving through – being slow in gases, fast in liquids, and even quicker in solids.Compared to light, sound takes its time to travel during a thunderstorm.
Is thunder just a sonic boom?
Thunder is the acoustic shock wave resulting from the extreme heat generated by a lightning flash.This is where air expands so rapidly that it compresses the air in front of it, forming a shock wave similar to a sonic boom. Exploding fireworks produce a similar result.
Is light faster than electricity?
Light travels through empty space at 186,000 miles per second. The electricity which flows through the wires in your homes and appliances travels much slower: only about 1/100 th the speed of light.
Why is light the fastest?
Nothing can travel faster than 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second). Only massless particles, including photons, which make up light, can travel at that speed. It’s impossible to accelerate any material object up to the speed of light because it would take an infinite amount of energy to do so.
Is anything faster than light?
Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity famously dictates that no known object can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum, which is 299,792 km/s.Unlike objects within spacetime, spacetime itself can bend, expand or warp at any speed.
How much faster is light than lightning?
Although light emitted from the lightning does travel at the speed of light, the actual developing lightning leaders, and the massive surge of current that you see as the actual lightning strike, only travel at 1% to 10% of the speed of light, so light is 10 – 100 times “faster” than lightning.
Is lightning the fastest thing on earth?
It is light however, at approximately 670 million mph, which takes first place as the fastest thing in the world. Responsible for our sense of sight, light allows us to fully appreciate the world around us whether we are experiencing life at super speeds or not.
Can lightning strike a house?
Stay indoors and avoid travel if possible.This is because lightning can travel through a building’s plumbing and metal pipes.
Is lightning hotter than the sun?
In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
Can 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!
How fast is lightning in mph?
1. 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.
Which is first thunder or 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.It takes approximately 5 seconds for the sound to travel 1 mile. If the thunder follows the lightning almost instantly, you know the lightning is too close for comfort!
Is Lighting 1/3 the speed of light?
The return stroke (the current that cause the visible flash) moves upward at a speed of about 320,000,000 ft per second or about 220,000,000 miles per hour (about 1/3 the speed of light). In comparison, the sound of thunder travels at about 1100 ft per second or about 750 miles per hour.
Can there be thunder without lightning?
No, it is not possible to have thunder without lightning. Thunder starts as a shockwave from the explosively expanding lightning channel when a large current causes rapid heating. However, it is possible that you might see lightning and not hear the thunder because it was too far away.Thunder is caused by lightning.
Does a pilot hear the sonic boom?
If you’re WONDERing about how pilots handle sonic booms, they actually don’t hear them. They can see the pressure waves around the plane, but people on board the airplane can’t hear the sonic boom. Like the wake of a ship, the boom carpet unrolls behind the airplane.
Can thunder hurt you?
What is there to be scared of? Most storms are harmless, even soothing to some, and nurturing to plants and wildlife. Thunder can’t hurt us, of course, but lightning strikes can be deadly.Still, lightning strikes are deadly, which is why you should go indoors when you hear thunder.
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