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Sentence | No. 8 Explorer
Editor|Explorer No. 8
In life, there will be many extreme weather, however, the hidden phenomena are not aware of them.
Why, has it been asked, when lightning and thunder occur at the same time, do we see lightning first and then hear thunder?
Regarding this question, many people can't answer it correctly, the real reason is actually very simple, let's take an in-depth science of this question.
Why do lightning and thunder occur at the same time?
Lightning, a very common discharge phenomenon in nature, is simply due to the electrostatic discharge of point clouds in the air, which leads to the phenomenon of lightning.
This phenomenon occurs more frequently in the troposphere, at an altitude of about 11 kilometers from the surface, and the higher this altitude, the lower the temperature.
At the same time, we see that the lightning in the air discharges electric sparks, the temperature is extremely high, and the process is very fast, usually people will disappear in the blink of an eye, this time only needs to be completed in less than a second.
Because of this, lightning in life is always something we see inadvertently, and we can't predict when it will appear.
And the reason why the sound of thunder and lightning occurs is because the location of the electric spark causes the air to be heated rapidly, and as we said above, it is precisely because of this that a huge volume expansion is generated.
This volume expansion can also be described as an explosion, because this huge explosion produces a loud sound when lightning appears.
And the reason why lightning is generated, there are experts who have conducted in-depth research and experiments.
The results show that the Cumulonimbus cloud can be considered a hotbed of lightning, and the height of this cumulonimbus cloud generally reaches more than 10,000 meters, and although the higher the troposphere, the lower the temperature, in fact, ice crystals can form above 5 kilometers.
Secondly, in order to form the phenomenon of thunder and lightning, certain meteorological conditions need to be achieved, that is, it must be the weather of thunderstorm clouds, in which water droplets and ice crystals appear together and constantly rub and collide, thus generating electric charges.
As electric charges continue to appear and accumulate, the electric field strength in the cloud gradually increases, and this phenomenon continues until the insulator in the air breaks through, resulting in lightning.
At the same time, when the raindrops present in the Cumulonimbus cloud are frozen, the positively charged ions will be concentrated at the lowest temperature, while the negatively charged ions will be concentrated at the higher temperature, which also indicates that the raindrops are colder and positively charged on the outside, while the warmer on the inside of the raindrops are negatively charged.
Why do you see lightning and then hear thunder?
The main reason why we see lightning before we hear thunder when such weather phenomena occur is that light and sound travel at different speeds.
When we see lightning in the sky, the lightning releases an energy called light waves because the current conducts so fast that it can almost be said to be close to the speed of light.
Depending on the atmosphere and temperature in the air, as well as the humidity, it travels at a speed of about 300,000 kilometers per second, which explains why light waves appear in the air at such a high speed.
In contrast, thunder is produced by sound waves, which travel very slowly, and sound needs to vibrate through air or other molecules, depending on the density and temperature of the medium.
It travels at a speed of about 340 meters per second in the air, because there is a difference in the speed of the two, so when lightning and thunder appear at the same time, lightning will appear quickly, while thunder needs to meet certain conditions before it can reach our ears.
If you have to give an example to illustrate the gap, for example, light and sound race around the earth at the same time, light only takes about 0135 seconds, while sound takes about 32 hours.
Lightning also has a long and short time difference, and we can judge the height of the clouds to the ground based on the sound transmitted to the ground.
Since the light reaches the ground in less than a second, the time between the appearance of lightning and the thunder can be multiplied by 340 meters, which is the distance that the lightning travels to the ground.
Another way to put it is that the speed of sound in the air gradually increases depending on the altitude of the temperature, and the speed at which sound travels in the air with higher temperatures will travel faster than when the air is lower.
That is, if the temperature gradually shows an upward trend, then the upper part of the sound wave that travels horizontally will travel more slowly than the lower part, causing the path of the sound wave to bend upward.
epilogue
Of course, the occurrence of thunder and lightning is not all bad, and if there is thunder and lightning accompanied by rain in the middle of summer, it can provide enough moisture for crops.
Thunderstorms also wash away dust and smoke from the air, and also play a role in purifying nature, which explains why most people feel that the air is fresh after a thunderstorm.
(The process and pictures described in the article are all from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance.) If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible! ）