Thunder and Lightning

     Have you ever asked yourself the question, "What comes first: Thunder or Lightning?" Well, if you look at it scientifically, and consider the differences between light and sound, obviously sound is something you hear, and light is something you see. Thunder is sound, and lightning is light. And both of these things travel at different speeds. Sound travels at a speed of about 1,100 feet per second.   That's pretty fast : about 750 miles per hour. Only high speed jets can travel that fast. But light travels much faster - about 186,000 miles per second. That's 669,600,000 miles per hour. Wow! Incredible isn't it! Imagine shining a beam of light powerful enough to travel around the world. If you shined it in one direction, it would travel around the world and hit you in the back of the head in less than a second. That same beam of light would reach the moon in about one second and the sun in about eight minutes. That's fast. Right now, our fastest space ships would take a few days to reach the moon and it would take almost a month to reach the sun. So people can't travel anywhere close to the speed of light.

   Now back to our original question: What travels faster - Thunder or Lightning? Now that you know the difference between sound and light, I'm sure you know the answer.

     Have you ever been outdoors on a stormy night and watched the sky? You usually see a flash of lightning, and a few seconds later, you hear the thunder. Sometimes it takes forever for the thunder to reach your ears. That means that the storm is very far away. And when you see lightning and hear thunder almost at the same time, get out of there quickly because the storm is right over the top of you.

     Here is a good way to tell how many miles away the storm is: Start to count when you see the first flash of lightning (1 Mississippi... 2 Mississippi... 3 Mississippi... and so on). That should give you the number of seconds. When the thunder starts, stop counting. Next divide the number of seconds you counted by the number 5. That should tell you how many miles away the storm is.

     Right now we need to use the calculator on this computer. To find the calculator, go to the start menu in the lower left hand side of the screen. Go to programs, then accessories, and finally calculator. Your calculator is now ready to use. If you click somewhere else on the screen, the calculator will disappear and become minimized. To use it again, click the word calculator on the task bar at the bottom of the page.

     Try this. Pretend lightning has just flashed and you counted to 75. Next type this into your calculator: 75 divided by (/) 5 = ? Do this now................     Your answer should be 75 seconds divided by 5 = 15. So therefore the storm is 15 miles away. It's as simple as that.

A way to discover how many seconds are between the lightning and thunder is take the number of miles and multiply it by 5. Try this. A storm is 20 miles away. How many seconds will be between the thunder and lightning? 20 X 5 = ? Do this now.......
Your answer should be 20 miles times 5 = 100 seconds.

Try the following problems. Put your answers on a separate piece of paper.
1) There are 60 seconds between the lightning and thunder. How many miles away is the storm?

2) There are 40 seconds between the lightning and thunder. How many miles away is the storm?

3) There are 215 seconds between the lightning and thunder. How many miles away is the storm?

4) There are 10 seconds between the lightning and thunder. How many miles away is the storm?

5) The storm is 10 miles away. How many seconds will be between the lightning and thunder?

6) The storm is 5 miles away. How many seconds will be between the lightning and thunder?

7) The storm is 2 miles away. How many seconds will be between the lightning and thunder?

8) The storm is 7 miles away. How many seconds will be between the lightning and thunder?

9) The storm is 24 miles away. How many seconds will be between the lightning and thunder? How many minutes? (seconds divided by 60 = minutes)

10) The storm is 60 miles away. How many seconds will be between the lightning and thunder? How many minutes? (seconds divided by 60 = minutes)

Now answer this final question in a complete sentence.
What comes first: Lightning or Thunder? Why?