Why is there a word for the sound of lightning?
352022
You wouldn't call it lightning, because that's what you see. You could call it "the sound of lightning" but we are generally pretty lazy - and that's too long!
549998
Yes and no.  While if there's lightning there's going to be thunder, it could be occurring so far up or away that you might see it but just not be able to hear the thunder.
511620
There are eight diffrent kinds  of lightning \nthere is a upward stroke but the first is downward  so your both right but the down comes first......\n the website below has all the info on lightning all eight kinds. I hope it was a good bet to win..
199846
You are holding a metal rod...there is lightning all around. Metal rods attract lighting. You are holding a metal rod.
473546
Such devices bring out the full flavor of words. Comparison and association are sometimes strengthened by syllables which imitate or reproduce the sounds they describe. When this occurs, it is called onomatopoeia (a Greek word meaning name-making "), for the sounds literally make the meaning in such words as "buzz," "crash," "whirr," "clang" "hiss," "purr," "squeak," "mumble," "hush," "boom." Poe lets us hear the different kinds of sounds made by different types of bells in his famous poem "The Bells." His choice of the right word gives us the right sound when he speaks of "tinkling" sleigh bells; "clanging" fire bells; mellow "chiming" wedding bells; "tolling," "moaning," and "groaning" funeral bells.
1083933
That kind of lightning are usually called  cloud to clud lightning, and  occurs  at very high altitudes between clouds at different altitudes (1,000 ft,).  there's no thunder because  the charges are  not  making ground like when they touch  earth.
1004921
Sound is a sense. The tree's fall causes vibrations, but, unless something is around to interpret those vibrations as sound, it is never "heard."
731609
It's impossible to have lightning without thunder and thunder without lightning. If you see lightning but don't hear thunder it's probably because you are too far away. Lightning is pretty darn bright and can be seen for tens of miles. Thunder is a compression wave and will dissipate with time and distance. \n\nUnder excellent conditions, thunder can be heard about 12 miles away from the lightning strike. However most of the time conditions aren't this good and we usually can't hear thunder any more than about 7 miles away. Likewise, if you hear thunder and don't see lightning, it's probably because the lightning occurred inside the cloud and was obscured by the cloud itself or rain.
301729
Both are correct.\n\nDuring a lightning strike, leaders travel up from the ground or object that is about to be struck. At the same time a strike comes from the clouds downward.\n\nWherever the leader is the tallest, the two will meet.\n\nThere are several types of lightning...\nCloud to ground\nGround to cloud\ncloud to cloud\n\nall are correct
133072
When lighning strikes, is causing the surrounding air to get extreamly hot and expand very quickly, causing thunder.\n\nSince you can see the efffects of lighning, you can tell pretty much instantly when a bold a lightning struck, it takes virtually no time for the light to travel to you.\nOn the other hand, the sound of the thunder travels at the speed of sound (MUCH slower than light), so it can take a significant amount of time for you to "hear" the effects of the lighning.\n\nSince the lighning bolt and the thunk clap pretty much occur at the same time, using the difference in the amount of time for you to detect them can tell you how far away they occured (since we know the approx. seed of sound is ~5 miles / sec).\nFor every 1 second that goes by between seeing the lighning and hearing the thunder, you are 5 miles away from there it occured.
629963
Besides the obvious "that's just how the universe and nature is" reason, it might be because sound is the propogation of mechanical waves.  It needs things like air to travel through and disturb the molecules.  Light is just itself (in some wavelength form) and travels that quickly.
1005278
Yes, light travels faster than sound. You can tell from several \nexamples. The best would probably be that of lightning and thunder. The next \ntime during a storm, if you notice when lightning flashes across the sky and \nwhen you hear thunder, you will find that it is always the lightning that \nflashes before the thunder. This is because lightning (i.e. light) travels \nfaster than thunder (i.e. sound), and reaches you faster, so that you see the \nlightning before you hear the thunder. In fact, light is enormously faster than \nsound. Light travels at 300,000,000 metres per second (i.e. 300 million metres \nper second), while poor old sound travels only at 330 metres per second.
994520
How do you define sound? The tree falling in the forest creates a pressure wave that would be heard by a listener as a sound. Does your defintion require a listener? The pressure wave exists whether or not there is one.  Merriam-Webster defines sound as:\n\n1 a : a particular auditory impression : TONE b : the sensation perceived by the sense of hearing c : mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (as air) and is the objective cause of hearing
701284
It refer to the primordial sound called "Ohm".
1102552
When you see the flash, count 1,001 - 1,002 - 1,003 ... until you hear the thunder and the nearest portion of the bolt will be one mile away for every five seconds.  Thunder rumbles because not all parts of the bolt are the same distance from you and the lightning zig zags across the sky.  The sound is caused by the sudden expansion of the air due to heat and the bolt discharges along its entire length almost instantly.  Any portion of the bolt that is on a path nearly perpendicular to your line of site (like staring at a wall straight on) will sound like a sharp crack with all the segment's sound arriving together as opposed to portions of the bolt traveling along your line of sight where the sound will arrive from the nearest point before the farthest point.  Portions of the bolt at angles between the extremes will sound different (crack or whimper) accordingly.  Of course the nearest portion of the bolt will sound louder than distant portions due to the inverse square law.  As a result, someone several miles from you will hear the same thunder but it will rumble quite differently for them.  You will have your own private show.
1077150
Thunderstorms are an occurrence of high pressure and low pressure. When the two zone converge they create ionization of the atmosphere, that is an electrical charge one is positive and the other negative, with the ground being ground. As the two systems get closer to each other, the disruption in the atmosphere caused the discharge of positive electrons across the pressure zones creating a static discharge in the form of lightening, most of the time the lightening strikes from positive to negative between the clouds, however many times the discharge is so massive it goes to ground. Thunder is the sound the lightening makes as it breaks the sound barrier of approximately 720 mile per hour when flashing between positive and negative poles.
468327
light cannot directly produce sound, but audible sound can be produced as a result of the rapid heating and expansion of the surrounding air of a powerful light beam.\nan example of this is thunder and lightning.