suppose that you wish to determine how far away from your position lightning has struck. the thunder that results from lightning expands outward in all directions at a constant speed (you may assume 343 m/s at 20C). when counting seconds between the time you see the lightning and the time you hear the thunder, what should you divide by (to three significant figures) to determine the number of miles away the lightning has struck?

Question

suppose that you wish to determine how far away from your position lightning has struck. the thunder that results from lightning expands outward in all directions at a constant speed (you may assume 343 m/s at 20C). when counting seconds between the time you see the lightning and the time you hear the thunder, what should you divide by (to three significant figures) to determine the number of miles away the lightning has struck?

Answer 1

i know that i could multiply by the number of second to figure out how many miles it traveled for that time but i don't know where to go from there.

Answer 2

First convert the speed of sound (343m/s) to miles per second.

For all practical purposes, we can consider the time it takes the lightning to reach the observer as negligible.
So the number of seconds the observer counted, multiplied by the speed of sound (in miles / second) will be the distance, in miles.

If the number of seconds is to be divided, then it should be divided by the reciprocal of the speed of sound, namely in seconds/mile.

Answer 3

To determine the number of miles away the lightning has struck, you need to convert the time difference between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder into a distance. Here's how you can do it:

1. Convert the speed of sound from meters per second to miles per second:
- Since the given speed of sound is 343 m/s, we need to convert it to miles per second. 1 mile is approximately equal to 1609.34 meters.
- So, the speed of sound in miles per second is 343 m/s / 1609.34 meters/mile = 0.2134 miles per second (rounded to four decimal places).

2. Divide the time difference by the speed of sound to get the distance:
- Let's assume the time difference between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder is x seconds.
- Divide x seconds by the speed of sound in miles per second: x seconds / 0.2134 miles per second.
- This will give you the distance in miles.

Therefore, to determine the number of miles away the lightning has struck, you should divide the time difference (in seconds) by approximately 0.2134 (to three significant figures).