Why does thunder make a big sound?
Talk about it together
What sound would you make to pretend you are thunder?
What about...?
Ask your child's own question
Transcript
Why does thunder make such a big sound? Let's wonder together!
A flash of lightning heats the air around it super fast. The hot air grows bigger all at once.
The growing air gives the air nearby a big push. That push travels through the sky toward us.
When the moving air reaches our ears, we hear thunder. Bigger lightning flashes can make louder thunder.
So that's why thunder is so big and rumbly. Lightning makes the air push hard and fast!
For grown-ups: the science
Thunder is the sound of air getting very hot from lightning and pushing outward fast.
Lightning heats the narrow path of air around it to extremely high temperatures in a tiny fraction of a second. The air expands rapidly, creating a pressure wave that travels as sound; we hear it as thunder. Longer or stronger lightning channels can produce louder, longer thunder, and distance changes how it sounds.