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Thunder is the sound caused by and after lightning. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning produces rapid expansion of the air in the path of a lightning bolt . [ 4 ]
Acid rain is also a frequent risk produced by lightning. Distilled water has a neutral pH of 7. "Clean" or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of about 5.2, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid (pH 5.6 in distilled water), but unpolluted rain also contains other chemicals. [58]
The ancient Etruscans produced guides to divining the future based on the omens supposedly displayed by thunder or lightning. [182] [183] Such use of thunder and lightning in divination is also known as ceraunoscopy, [184] a kind of aeromancy. In the traditional religion of the African Bantu tribes, lightning is a sign of the ire of the gods.
Because temperature and density change with height, the sound of thunder is refracted through the troposphere. This refraction results in spaces through which the thunder does not propagate. The sound of thunder often reflects off the Earth's surface. The rumbling sound is partly due to these reflections.
The flash of a lightning strike and resulting thunder occur at roughly the same time. But light travels 300,000 km/sec, almost a million times the speed of sound. Sound travels at the slower speed of about 340 m/sec (depending on the temperature), so the flash of lightning is seen before thunder is heard. A method to determine the distance ...
It happens because of something called the Rayleigh effect, or Rayleigh scattering, named after a British scientist who first wrote about it in 1871. Bands of vivid blue, pink and orange light are ...
Because the atmospheric electric field is negatively directed (meaning toward the ground) in fair weather, the convention is to refer to the potential gradient, which has the opposite sign (meaning the electrical potential increases with distance from the ground) and is about 100 V/m at the surface, at a distance from thunderstorms. [6]
A federal judge in Washington Monday appeared inclined to deny an urgent request to temporarily block Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from firing employees or accessing sensitive ...