Activity for Kids and Adults: Distance of Lightning using Arithmetic

There is no need for thunderstorms to ruin acorresponding thunder 9 seconds later. In this
family evening together. In reality, you can turn aevent, the initial bolt would be 1.8 miles from your
stormy night into a great family activity that couldlocation. We determined this figure by dividing 9
be educational and fun for all members of yourby 5, which equates to 1.8.
household.How about another example? If you make out a
The light that you see returned from a lightningstrike of lightning then hear the boom of thunder
bolt journeys to your eyes almost21 seconds afterwards, how far is it away? To
straightaway.But as a result of the reality thatfind out, just take the number of seconds, 21,
sound moves slower than light, you will alwaysand divide it by five. The answer is 4.2, so the
see the charge of lightning before you hear itslightning must be just about 4.2 miles from where
related rumbling. Light travels at a blazing velocityyou are following it.
of 186,000 miles per second arriving to your eyesPlease be aware that this process doesn't
immediately as sound moves at a rather leisurelycontinually result in correct results.The thunder
velocity of 770 miles per hour. At this velocity,that you hear might not necessarily match directly
sound will voyage a mile in more or less 5to the lightning that you see. Instead, you could
seconds. By making use of this information, webe hearing thunder from a bolt of lightning you did
can effortlessly find roughly how far away anot see.Not all bolts of lighting contact the ground,
lightning bolt is.so there are times when you will pick up thunder
To get rolling on this task, on the next eveningthat looks to go with no lightning at all.
with appropriate storms, locate an area where itYou should constantly take security seriously
is secure to watch for lightning strikes.As soonwhen observing thunderstorms. You shouldn't be
the a bolt of lightning lights up the sky, begin aclose to things such as electronic devices or
stopwatch or manually add up the amount ofappliances, metallic objects, or tall objects like
seconds until you hear the roar.lightpoles or trees.
Now that you have recorded the number ofBeing a meteorologist is not a prerequisite to
seconds among the lightning and its thunder, tobeing able to establish how far lighting is away. If
gauge the approximate distance of the thunder,you have a stopwatch and a secure area to
simply divide the number of seconds by 5. Anwatch the storm, try this activity and add some
illustration would be seeing lightning then hearing it'ssunshine and excitement to a rainy night.