Activity for Kids and Adults: Distance of Lightning using Arithmetic
Author: Reese Michaels
There is no need for thunderstorms to ruin a family evening together. In reality, you can turn a stormy night into a great family activity that could be educational and fun for all members of your household.
The light that you see returned from a lightning bolt journeys to your eyes almost straightaway.But as a result of the reality that sound moves slower than light, you will always see the charge of lightning before you hear its related rumbling. Light travels at a blazing velocity of 186,000 miles per second arriving to your eyes immediately as sound moves at a rather leisurely velocity of 770 miles per hour. At this velocity, sound will voyage a mile in more or less 5 seconds. By making use of this information, we can effortlessly find roughly how far away a lightning bolt is.
To get rolling on this task, on the next evening with appropriate storms, locate an area where it is secure to watch for lightning strikes.As soon the a bolt of lightning lights up the sky, begin a stopwatch or manually add up the amount of seconds until you hear the roar.
Now that you have recorded the number of seconds among the lightning and its thunder, to gauge the approximate distance of the thunder, simply divide the number of seconds by 5. An illustration would be seeing lightning then hearing it's corresponding thunder 9 seconds later. In this event, the initial bolt would be 1.8 miles from your location. We determined this figure by dividing 9 by 5, which equates to 1.8.
How about another example? If you make out a strike of lightning then hear the boom of thunder 21 seconds afterwards, how far is it away? To find out, just take the number of seconds, 21, and divide it by five. The answer is 4.2, so the lightning must be just about 4.2 miles from where you are following it.
Please be aware that this process doesn't continually result in correct results.The thunder that you hear might not necessarily match directly to the lightning that you see. Instead, you could be hearing thunder from a bolt of lightning you did not see.Not all bolts of lighting contact the ground, so there are times when you will pick up thunder that looks to go with no lightning at all.
You should constantly take security seriously when observing thunderstorms. You shouldn't be close to things such as electronic devices or appliances, metallic objects, or tall objects like lightpoles or trees.
Being a meteorologist is not a prerequisite to being able to establish how far lighting is away. If you have a stopwatch and a secure area to watch the storm, try this activity and add some sunshine and excitement to a rainy night.
About the Author:
Reese writes on a variety of topics. Also see Davis Wireless Weather Station and Wireless Home Weather Stations Youth Ski Helmets Reasons Why Your Child Should Wear One Dealing With Manipulative Children: How To Stop Manipulative Children From Controlling You Kids books to enhance the enjoyment in sports Hot Kids Christmas Presents This Year Appropriate Fun For Children Child Labour Strategies On How To Teach Your Children To Value Money Baby's First Christmas Gifts: How To Pick Baby's Gifts This Christmas How to Recognize Symptoms and Signs of Autism in Children Promotional Toys Are Not Just For Kids Loss Of Sex Drive After Having Children Educating Home School Math To Your Child Baby Sign Language - Sign For Wait