How do thunders form?
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Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending on the distance and nature of the lightning, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble (brontide). The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within a bolt of lightning.
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another answer is:
Electrical charges get separated in thunderclouds as a function of height. Nobody knows exactly how this happens, although it is thought that it has something to do with the contact between water droplets low in the clouds and ice crystals higher up. In any case,parts of the cloud develop an excess of electrons, thus a negative electric charge, and others develop a dearth of electrons, thus a positive electric charge. This separation of electric charges generates an electrical field.
All substances, including air, resist the flow of electrons, but if you overpower the resistance, the air will spark: a channel in the air will ionize, becoming a plasma, in which the electrons are free of the atoms they had belonged to. Electrical current flows very easily in a plasma, so the charges run down and the process starts over again. Plasmas, however, require a great deal of energy to form - the plasma that forms from a spark is about twice the temperature of the sun. Being twice the temperature, it shines about sixteen times as brightly, which causes it to rapidly cool off and become gas (air) again once the current has flowed, which is almost instantaneous, because plasma is so good an electrical conductor. Also being so hot, the plasma explodes into the surrounding air, creating a shockwave.
The flash from the hot plasma is what we know of as lightning, and the shockwave, thunder.
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another answer is:
Electrical charges get separated in thunderclouds as a function of height. Nobody knows exactly how this happens, although it is thought that it has something to do with the contact between water droplets low in the clouds and ice crystals higher up. In any case,parts of the cloud develop an excess of electrons, thus a negative electric charge, and others develop a dearth of electrons, thus a positive electric charge. This separation of electric charges generates an electrical field.
All substances, including air, resist the flow of electrons, but if you overpower the resistance, the air will spark: a channel in the air will ionize, becoming a plasma, in which the electrons are free of the atoms they had belonged to. Electrical current flows very easily in a plasma, so the charges run down and the process starts over again. Plasmas, however, require a great deal of energy to form - the plasma that forms from a spark is about twice the temperature of the sun. Being twice the temperature, it shines about sixteen times as brightly, which causes it to rapidly cool off and become gas (air) again once the current has flowed, which is almost instantaneous, because plasma is so good an electrical conductor. Also being so hot, the plasma explodes into the surrounding air, creating a shockwave.
The flash from the hot plasma is what we know of as lightning, and the shockwave, thunder.
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