Why do you see lightning before you hear the thunder? A familiar rule of thumb is to start counting slowly once per second, when you see the lightning; when you hear the thunder, divide the number you have reached by 3 to obtain your distance front the lightning in kilometers (or divide by 5 to obtain your distance in miles). Why does this work, or does it?
Solution 9DQ Step 1: Light is seen before thundering as the light rays travel faster than the sound waves Speed of light is c = 3 × 10 m/s Speed of sound v = 340.29 m/s Thus we see lightning before we hear thunder