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What is thunder and lightning?

Now we will talk about what is thunder.This natural phenomenon is usually observed after lightning. Such phenomena caused a terrible feeling of fear in our ancestors, they considered them a manifestation of the wrath of the gods. At the time of the ancient Slavs, paganism was common. They worshiped various gods, including Perun - the god of thunder, lightning and thunder. He was the main in the Old Slavic pantheon. And, like any great deity, Perun was dedicated to a personal holiday. Perun Day was celebrated on July 21. God was revered as giving a rain of life to nature. On this day, the ancestors glorified him, after they consecrated their weapons, made a sacrifice, performed a rite to commemorate the soldiers who fell in battles. The end of the day was a hearty meal and games.

what is thunder

These times have sunk into oblivion, and thunder and lightningremained. Let's look in specialized directories or textbooks of natural history. There we can read what thunder is - the sound of oscillating air around a lightning bolt that quickly heats up and expands. Probably, you have repeatedly paid attention to the fact that sometimes we first see an electrical discharge, and only then we hear a crash. This happens because the light waves travel at a speed of about 300,000 km / s, and the sound waves are much slower, about 335 m / s. But not always thunder and lightning are one during a thunderstorm. It so happens that a flash of lightning has occurred, but no sound is heard. This may be if the storm is quite far away. It happens that thunder rumbles, but the lightning is not visible - it will be difficult to see on a clear day even when it forms inside a cloud.

If you want to know how farthunderstorm, it will not be difficult to do this. You only need to calculate how many seconds elapse between the flash of an electrical discharge and the sound of thunder, divide into three, and you will know how far there is a thunderstorm. If you make several similar calculations, you can find out if a cloud is approaching or moving away from you. In the case when thunder is not heard, it can be argued that the thunderhead is more than twenty kilometers away from you.

Thunder and lightning

To understand how lightning is formed,recall the school curriculum - the section on electricity. It is known that all objects are charged either positively or negatively. During a thunderstorm in a cloud, droplets condense and take positively charged particles. The cloud becomes negatively charged relative to the Earth. In the case when the charge in the cloud of rain is too large, there is a discharge of lightning. The same phenomenon you can see when this occurs between the clouds.

the sound of thunder

Now let's understand what is thunder?During electrical discharge, the air expands very quickly, then shrinks, and air flows quickly. When the contact between them occurs, the sound of thunder is heard. The volume of these rolls can reach 120 decibels.

After reading this article, you yourself have learned and can explain to the small Pochemuchkas what thunder, lightning are, how they are formed, and why there is a roar.