Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather inquiry - On a thunderstorm night, lightning is always seen first, and then thunder is heard. Why?

On a thunderstorm night, lightning is always seen first, and then thunder is heard. Why?

Lightning and thunder happen at the same time, but it is true that we usually see lightning first and then hear thunder, because light travels much faster in the air than sound. At 15℃, the speed of sound in air is 340m/s, while the speed of light in vacuum is 3× 108 m/s, and the propagation speed of light in air is slightly lower, which is also approximately considered as 3× 108m/s, which is equivalent to 7 1s around the equator of the earth. It takes 2.56 seconds for light to travel back and forth on the moon.

Sometimes when the weather merges, the situation becomes worse. Clouds form strong convective weather, producing electrons and light. We call it lightning, and lightning produces sound at the same time. Because light waves travel faster than sound in the air and the light is bright, we can see it at a glance, and then we can hear thunder. In normal weather, when it rains, lightning travels fast, so we can't hear thunder; There is no sound without lightning. Lightning and thunder are caused by clouds with different charges or discharges between clouds and the earth.

When clouds with different charges are at a certain distance, the positive charge leads to the decomposition of air and the discharge is released instantly. Spark is lightning and sound is thunder. Lightning and thunder happen at the same time, but in air, the speed of light is fast and the speed of sound is slow. The speed of light reaches the ground first, so lightning is seen first. The speed of light propagation in the air is about 300,000 kilometers per second. At this speed, it goes around the equator seven and a half times a second. The speed at which sound travels in the air is about 340 meters per second, which is about 900,000 times the speed of light.

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