what exactly is thunder and how is the sound actually created?
403345
Thunder is caused by lightning. The sound is made as the air around the lightning bolt rapidly heats and cools. The air around a lightning strike is heated to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (27,500 C), as the air cools it causes a shock wave to occur known as thunder. The closer the lightning is, the louder the clap of thunder will be. You can think of thunder as nature's way of warning you to take cover to avoid being struck by lightning.
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.
1026481
Energy is neither created nor destroyed.\n\nit simply become another form of energy.\n\nWhile the air is necessary for the sound to travel, (any \nmedium that is made up of molecules will transmit sound, i.e. sound will \nnot travel in a vacuum), it also has inertia.  Thus the sound wave must \n"push" the air molecules into the next molecule and so on. The friction \nbetween the molecules  causes the sound wave to eventually lose its energy, \nand thus its volume or intensity.  All the while this is occuring, other \nobjects, animals and humans are absorbing the energy in the wave until the \noriginal energy is absorbed into other systems in the form of mechanical \nenergy or chemical energy.
32628
When you clap your hands, you compress the air between your palms.  That compression of air causes the load clap sound.  When a jet travels at extremely fast speeds, it compresses air in front of it and so causes the sonic boom.  The same goes with thunder.  When lightning strikes, the air around the lightning bolt is heated to very high temperatures and expands and pushes out at the surrounding air and this causes a compression against the surrounding air and you hear the violent thunder.
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.
1089309
I've answered this question several times before (when you enter a question, Yahoo! directs you to a list of similar questions already answered).\n\nIt is a common misconception that, if a tree falls, it has to make a sound, regardless of whether or not something is around to hear it. The misconception is between the words "sound" and "vibration."\n\nWhen a tree falls, it vibrates the earth and the air around it. Sound, a sense, is how most animals interpret those vibrations at specific frequencies (Anywhere from 20-20,000Hz for humans). Unless something is around to interpret the vibrations caused by the tree's fall, it is not heard and cannot produce a "sound."
281155
It is called Static Electricity. So, I would assume it is Electric. Dry the clothes at night and with the Lights off remove from the Dryer and pull apart you will see the miniature Lightening in the Dark, yes Thunderstorms and Lightening, only the Thunder sounds like a little crackle.
246666
The answer to your question is the whip.  The end of a cracked whip can exceed speeds of Mach One.  The sound of a whip cracking is actually a mini sonic boom.
108122
http://science.howstuffworks.com/lightning.htm
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.
464632
(1) The Sound is a  physical phenomenon that stimulates the sense of hearing. \n(2) In human beings, hearing takes place whenever vibrations of frequencies between about 15 and 20,000 hertz reach the inner ear.\n(3)  The hertz (Hz) is a unit of frequency equalling one cycle per second. Such vibrations reach the inner ear when they are transmitted through air, and the term sound is sometimes restricted to such airborne vibrational waves. Modern physicists, however, usually extend the term to include similar vibrations in liquid or solid media. Sounds of frequencies higher than about 20,000 hertz are called ultrasonic
381799
When it fell, it still made air vibrations (which could be considered sound depending on the definition you read).\n\nFor example:\n\nSound (Noun):\n"1c: mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (as air) and is the objective cause of hearing"\n\nSo, based on this definition, yes it made 'sound'.
1094000
First, variables:\nsay "x" is the intensity of sound measured in watts per square meter and "h" is the smallest sound a human can hear at 10^-12 watts per square meter. So the decibel measurement of the sound heard in x is 10*Log(x/h)\n\nsince it is based on a comparison its easier to use 2 different sounds.\n\nLoud Music is 100dB, Intense thunder is 120dB. Initially it would seem that this isnt that much of a difference. 20dBs is a whisper, but on calculation:\n\n1)100=10*log(x1/10^-12)    120=10log(x2/10^-12)\n\n2)100/10=log(x1/10^-12)    120/10=log(x2/10^-12) \n\n3)(10^10)= x1/10^-12                 (10^12)=x2/10^-12\n\n4) x1 = (10^10)(10^-12)              x2=(10^12)(10^-12)\n\n5) x2/x1 = 1/.01 = thunder is 100 times louder than loud music\n\nand now back to work
7774
Thunder / lightning is caused when a cold front and a warm front come together.  More info on lightning can be found here:\nhttp://www.insuremyhouse.com/lightning.html
11380
It certainly makes sound. But, there is nobody to notice his sound. Sound is also a kind of energy. Whether someone noticed or not, it can not be destroyed.
790168
Lightening (which causes the thunder) is caused by a static electrical charge build up inside very high clouds. The static build up is caused by the collision and rubbing of small ice particles way up in the clouds. If these particles get big enough they will fall down and depending on the temperature outside will either melt into rain, or could initiate crystal formation (snow).\n\nSo you see, there is nothing about whether its rain or snow that effects the mechanism of lightning generation. The reason that it is less common in the winter is that in order to produce the very high lightning generating clouds (anvil-topped cummilonimbus [sorry if spelt wrong!]) it requires very strong updrafts - This is more likely in the summer when the hot sun beating down heats air rapidly so it shoots up fast. But there are conditions in winter that can have the same effect (like collision between warm and cold fronts).
9323
Sound is actually just vibrations in atoms and molecules. Our ears are able to decipher these vibrations into sound, if the vibrations are strong and close enough. The laws of the earth are forever constant, so if a tree falls, whether someone is close enough or not, it will cause vibrations in the air and on ground nonetheless. Animals will hear it. There is no sound in space