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How to calculate where lightning strikes..
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| N|te-L|fe |
Well it's quite stormy over here and I was just discussing with a collegue about how to calculate the distance between you and a lightning hit based on the elapsed time between when you see the bolt and hear the thunder..
I've heard it's something like 37 km for every second you count, not sure if that's correct..
Anyone has any clue? |
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| Floorfiller |
hmmm...i always heard that it was about a mile away for every sec you counted...
not sure... |
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| Lira |
Lightspeed: Instant
Sound speed: 340 m/s
For every second, the thunder is 340 meters away. |
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| DJ_Bod |
in english units? ;)
j/k
just mad because you said exactly what I was going to. |
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| Ang ' ela_ie |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Lightspeed: Instant
Sound speed: 340 m/s
For every second, the thunder is 340 meters away. |
343 mps. ;) |
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| N|te-L|fe |
| I was way off! :nervous: |
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| ryo |
I know the above is correct, but shouldn't there be some sort of correction because of the angle? The thunder and flash don't come from the same altitude as where you are, so it tells you the shortest distance to the point of where the thunder evolves from which is not exactly equal to the real distance you're away from it. So what I'm saying here, you have to know the altitude to be able to calculate the distance. Hopefully someone understands this crap and can explain it to me... I'll try drawing it:p
T+F
|..\
|...\
|....\x
|.....\
|......\
|.......\
a_____you
....y
So uhm, you can calculate x, but you really wanna know y or am I wrong here:D |
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| ShadoWolf |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Lightspeed: Instant
Sound speed: 340 m/s
For every second, the thunder is 340 meters away. |
but what if it's cloud-to-cloud lightning? |
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| Floorfiller |
| quote: | Originally posted by ShadoWolf
but what if it's cloud-to-cloud lightning? |
doesn't lightning also originate from the ground sometimes? |
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| Ang ' ela_ie |
Future meteorologist at your service.
1. Lightning originates from the ground, yes.
2. There is cloud to cloud lightening, yes.
ryo, youre trying to use pathagoreans theorem to calculate this, and while it was a good idea, you have to remember that sound travels in all directions. What youre hearing has traveled from origin directly to you, which is why a simple speed calculation will work.
If Im not being clear let meh know! :p |
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| ryo |
| quote: | | Originally posted by Floorfiller doesn't lightning also originate from the ground sometimes? |
I heard that too. Does it come with a thunder then? And are those perhaps those "balls" which travel over ground or something like that?
And the speed of sound is 343 m/s in vacuum, so it's actually a bit less in this case:p |
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| ryo |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ang ' ela_ie
Future meteorologist at your service.
1. Lightning originates from the ground, yes.
2. There is cloud to cloud lightening, yes.
ryo, youre trying to use pathagoreans theorem to calculate this, and while it was a good idea, you have to remember that sound travels in all directions. What youre hearing has traveled from origin directly to you, which is why a simple speed calculation will work.
If Im not being clear let meh know! :p |
Yeah I know, but when people want to know how far they're away from the lightning, they want to know the distance to the place where the lightning strikes, not the distance to the origin, don't they? That's why I suggested pathagoreans theorem:) |
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