Is thunder dangerous? Detailed answer

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Is thunder dangerous? Detailed answer

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Is thunder dangerous?

Many people startle in fear when they hear thunder during a thunderstorm. However, there is not the slightest reason to fear thunder. By the time its sound reaches you, the electrical discharge of the lightning that actually caused the thunder will have long been extinguished. The fact that the time gap between them can reach several tens of seconds is explained by the significantly higher speed of light propagation compared to the speed of sound.

Should I be afraid of lightning? In general, yes, because there are cases when lightning not only caused any damage, but even killed people. However, if you behave correctly during a thunderstorm (for example, do not run across the field and do not hide under a lonely tree), then the chance of being struck by lightning is extremely small. The reason for the danger in lightning, as already mentioned, is that they are powerful electrical discharges.

When a particularly strong lightning flashes in the sky during a night thunderstorm, for a moment it becomes as bright as day. Lightning usually flashes between two clouds.

Sometimes lightning strikes from a cloud into the ground or into some object on its surface, and occasionally it happens that the opposite happens! Lightning appears like this: when during a thunderstorm the space between the earth and the clouds is electrified, and positive and negative electric charges begin to accumulate in it. When the difference between them becomes large enough, a discharge jumps between them. This is lightning.

During a lightning discharge in the air, areas of compression (high pressure) and expansion (low pressure) instantly appear. They "collide" with force, producing a rumble that we call thunder.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What is the name of the largest rock in the world?

Not Ayers Rock.

The largest monolithic rock in the world is Mount Augustus (or Burringurrah), located in a remote part of Western Australia. Augustus is two and a half times the size of Uluru (new name Ayers Rock) and one of the least known but most impressive places in the world.

Augustus rises 858 m above the surrounding wasteland, and its crest stretches for more than 8 km.

Augustus is not only larger and taller than Uluru, the rock of this mountain is also much older. That gray sandstone that opens up to our eyes is the remains of the seabed that formed here 1000 million years ago. And the rock hiding under the sandstone is granite 1650 million years old. The most ancient sandstone Uluru is only 400 million years old.

Augustus Rock is a sacred site of the Wajari aborigines. She got her name in honor of a young man named Burringurra, who tried to escape from the rite of passage. The women of the tribe caught up with the fugitive, wounded him with a spear in the leg, and then beat him to death with strong clubs. They say that the shape of the rock resembles a prostrate body: as if a young man is lying on his stomach, bending his leg to his chest, from which a fragment of a spear shaft sticks out.

And finally, the last sting in the tail of the arrogant snobs from the Ayers Rock camp: Mount Augustus is a monolith, that is, a single piece of rock. Uluru is not. Ayers Rock is just the tip of a huge underground mountain system that sticks out of the ground in two more places: Mount Conner (Attila, Attila) and Mount Olga (Kata Tjuta, Kata Tjuta).

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