Did You Know?

Light travels about a million times faster than sound. So during a thunderstorm, you see lightning before you hear its thunder--unless it strikes too close for comfort! You can gauge how far away the lightning is by counting the number of seconds between the flash of lightning and its thunderclap. Sound travels a kilometer in about three seconds. So if you divide the number of seconds by three you can figure out how many kilometers away the lightning struck. Dividing by five gives you the distance in miles.

(Rev. 11/08/96)