Why does the thunder from close lightning produce a BOOM and then a slow fade off? Why does it fade off instead of just stop? Conversely, why is thunder from far away a slow fade-on instead of an instant but quieter boom?
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The sound waves bounce off of objects and as they get further away, the amplitude of those sound waves bouncing back towards you drops off as they dissipate through resistance.
Similar to how someone’s voice gets lower and lower the further they get from you, the sound waves from the thunder bouncing off of the ground and objects getting further and further away from you drops off too.
Often referred to as reflections. For the sound to just stop would require absolutely no reflective surfaces which is something that does not occur in nature. Outside of nature we have things like anechoic chambers which absorb almost all sound reflections. So you can’t hear someone unless their mouth is facing you (for the most part). If you were to recreate a small thunder strike sound in there, chances are it would be extremely brief. And it would likely sound nothing like thunder since most of the sound of thunder is the sound reflecting off of the ground and objects. The original sound I would venture to guess would only be milliseconds in length.
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