Eli5: Please explain lightning and thunder.
In: 0
Am I wrong?
In my head I imagine 2 side bing pulled, like someone who would close the curtains shut. Just the pulling of 2 sides then colliding with eachother creating the lightning and thunder is the noise their Collison makes.
And that the lightning reaction is like a chain reaction with it continuing bouncing around like a plinko board, to the ground?
Debris floating up in the air rubs together in the nice dry air up there creating static electricity.
Once the air is no longer able to contain said electricity it looks for a place to discharge. The closest spot is earth so lightening comes down from the heavens.
Since all that energy isn’t dissipated with just light a massive amount of heat is created.
That heat rapidly expands the air around it then collapses causing thunder
Lightning: at some point, there’s an enormous buildup of electromagnetic potential between the atmosphere/clouds and the ground below. The clouds are picking up more and more negative charge, which is desperate to dissipate itself by moving into some positively charged space or body. But open air isn’t the best conductor of that energy, so the charge in the clouds continues to build to a critical level at which point it essentially forces itself down into the ground through some path of minimal resistance in the air. This requires (and releases) a tremendous amount of energy, which superheats the narrow sliver of air through which this electricity passes. That’s what you see, and that’s where the thunder comes in.
Thunder: The column of air through which the lightning passes expands dramatically in a short instant, and the surrounding cool air rushes in to fill the pressure differential. This shock of expansion and contraction displaces a LOT of air in a fraction of a second, and that is what you’re hearing.
Latest Answers