Question

During thunder and lightning storm, an observer heard the thunder 15s after seeing the lightning move into the ground. if the air temprature was 28celcies, how far was the observer from the spot where the lightning hit
the ground? (light travels at 3.0 x 10*8m/s)

Answer 1

Use the temperature to get the speed of sound. It should about 350 m/s, but increases slowly with temperature.

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-speedsound.htm is one way to get the sound speed.

Light can be considered instantaneous because it is about a million times faster than sound.

Use this formula:

(time delay of sound) x (speed of sound) = distance

It will be about 5000 meters or three miles.

The light took only 17*10^-6 s to reach the observer. This justifies the instantaneous assumption.

Answer 2

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