Let's think about Lightning - Smarter Every Day 15

2m read

·Nov 3, 2024

[Music] [Rainfall and thunder] Hey, it's me, Destin.

So I'm gonna explain why thunder sounds the way it does. And uh, we're in the middle of a thunderstorm here, obviously, so I'm going to try to make this quick.

So basically, if you're standing on the ground here, and let's say there's lightning that happens way up in the sky, really far away from you. So what happens is, as soon as it breaks the sound barrier, that sound wave starts traveling towards your body. But also, the speed of the electricity of the lightning bolt is a lot faster than sound, so that... Oh wow, that's going to be a big one. At least I could see it.

So also, that lightning bolt... [Thunder] outruns the sound. So the sound is simultaneously initiated from all points along the lightning bolt, at the same time. So what happens is you get some cracks that happen before other cracks and you get this low rumble. So you might get... [Thunder] a really low rumble, like that.

So what happens is, if the lightning bolt is really really really far away from you, then all the sound might make it to you at the same time. But sometimes you get this long drawn out thunder rumble, and that's because the sound is coming to you at different points from along the bolt. It has to do with the distance of the lightning bolt, your position and the sound.

So there you go. I know that's not in-depth at all, but I'm in the middle of a thunderstorm. But I hope you're smarter every day and you at least get to think about it. Have a good one. [Thunder]

[Music] ...Good at this, so... I'll show you.

Watch his head stay totally stationary as I move his body. I can move his body in pretty much any direction. Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.

How to Focus Intensely

How I spend my $163,800 per month income

View All

SCIENCE! What is the Rarest Precious Metal?

Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. And I’m in Anaheim at VidCon. I hope to see some of you here, because I like you guys. But I can’t marry all of you. But if I did put a ring on it, what is the most precious thing you could make that ring out of? Silver, gold, p…

The Inverse Leidenfrost Effect

Now you’ve probably heard of the Leidenfrost effect. That’s when a volatile droplet like water levitates over a hot surface because it’s floating on a little cushion of its own vapor. Here I’m gonna try to create the inverse Leidenfrost effect where we le…

Calculating simple & compound interest | Grade 8 (TX) | Khan Academy

So let’s do some examples calculating simple and compound interest. Let’s say we are starting with principal, and I’ll use P for principal of $4,000. $4,000. And let’s say that we are going to invest it over a time period of four years. And let’s say th…

6 Quick Mood Enhancers

A bad mood often goes together with ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. In many cases, a mental problem has a physical solution. In other cases, the solution lies in changing the way you think. In this video, I’ll show you six quick mo…

Connecting limits and graphical behavior | Limits and continuity | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

So, we have the graph of y is equal to g of x right over here, and I want to think about what is the limit as x approaches 5 of g of x. Well, we’ve done this multiple times. Let’s think about what g of x approaches as x approaches 5. From the left, g of …

Camp Khan Parent Webinar

Hi everyone, good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you’re joining us um in the country. My name is Roy, and I’m here to give you a quick overview of Camp Con, our new summer camp. Quick agenda here: we’re going to do intros real quickly, talk…

Let's think about Lightning - Smarter Every Day 15

More Articles