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.

Could Your Phone Hurt You? Electromagnetic Pollution

Peopling the Americas

View All

Axe Ghost devlog - The bug that ruined the run

My name is Thomas K. I’m working on a game called Axe Ghost. It’s currently in development. There’s a demo on Steam, and my good friend Rishad Buser, he plays the beta version of Axe Ghost, and when he’s able, he streams his daily runs. Richard, by the wa…

Does Planet 9 Exist?

So, you think Planet 9 exists with 99.8% probability? Something like that. Yeah, maybe 99… I’ll push it higher. 99.9% probability. This is wishful thinking. It is. I mean if you’re that sure, find it. In the farthest reaches of our solar system, way …

The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment | World History | Khan Academy

As we get into the 1500s, the Renaissance has been going on for roughly 200 years. Especially, Europe has been rediscovering the knowledge from the Greeks and from the Romans. As they enter into the 16th century, they start to go beyond the knowledge of t…

The Current State of the Stock Market (2021)

So that right there is Charlie Monkey. He’s essentially Warren Buffett’s right hand man. He is the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. What we’re looking at right here is him giving a talk at the Daily Journal shareholders meeting, which happened a coupl…

"Why I Started MINING My Own BITCOIN!" (Millionaire Bitcoin Advice) | Kevin O'Leary

We don’t think you should own coin made in China. I said the only way I can possibly not own kind of China coin is to make it myself. So, new game plan: every coin I’m going to own, I’m going to know where it came from, when it was created, and it’s goin…

Partial derivatives of vector fields

So let’s start thinking about partial derivatives of vector fields. A vector field, as a function, I’ll do—I’ll just do a two-dimensional example here—is going to be something that has a two-dimensional input, and then the output has the same number of di…

Let's think about Lightning - Smarter Every Day 15

More Articles