The activity series is :
Potassium
Soduim
Calcium
Magnesuim
Aluminiuim
Zinc
Iron
Lead
Copper
Silver
Gold
Am I right ?
During a thunderstorm, you see lightning before you hear thunder because,
a-.the thunder occurs after the lightning
b-.the thunder is farther away than the lightning
c-.sound travels faster than light
d-.light travels faster than sound
According to my text (Whitten, Davis, and Peck, General Chemistry, 5th edition), calcium is before sodium, so the order is K, Ca, Na, etc. The others are in correct order.
You should post separate questions under "post a new question."
Light travels about 186,000 miles/second. Sound travels about 1100 feet/second. So the light gets to your eye much faster than the sound gets to your ear. Did you know you could count, by seconds, from the time you see the light to the time your hear the sound, and estimate how far away the thunder was. Five seconds = about 1 mile.
The speed of sound is about 340m/sec? If there is a 3 second difference between seeing a bolt of lightning and hearing the crash of the thunder, how far away did the lightning strike take place?
According to the provided order, you are correct except for the placement of sodium (Na) and calcium (Ca). The correct order based on the activity series is:
Potassium (K)
Calcium (Ca)
Sodium (Na)
Magnesium (Mg)
Aluminum (Al)
Zinc (Zn)
Iron (Fe)
Lead (Pb)
Copper (Cu)
Silver (Ag)
Gold (Au)
Therefore, the corrected order is K, Ca, Na, Mg, Al, Zn, Fe, Pb, Cu, Ag, Au.
Now, to answer the second question, during a thunderstorm, you see lightning before you hear thunder because light travels faster than sound. Light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second, while sound travels at around 1,100 feet per second. This means that light reaches your eyes much faster than sound reaches your ears. As a result, you see the flash of lightning almost instantly, while it takes some time for the sound waves to travel to your location.
To estimate the distance of the thunder from your location, you can count the seconds between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. Every five seconds corresponds roughly to a distance of one mile. So, if you count five seconds between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder, the thunder is approximately one mile away.