a. Explain why many times lightning bolts appear to flicker.
b. You see a flash of lightning, and then hear a boom of thunder 3 seconds later. How far away is the lightning in meters (or kilometers)? Should you implement lightning safety procedures?
c. Identify and describe what red sprites and blue jets are.
2. Lightning's temperature is stated in the lecture to be approximately 30,000?C. Consider a day when the ambient air temperature is 30?C. Assume that for both the ambient air, and the lightning bolt, that the initial air density is the same.
a. Calculate the air density of the ambient air using the ideal gas equation. Use an ambient pressure of 1013.25 mb. Don't forget to convert the temperature and pressure to the appropriate units.
b. Now, assuming the air density is the same as (a) initially, calculate the initial pressure for a lightning bolt. How much error would occur if you forgot to convert the lightning bolt temperature to Kelvin and instead used degrees Celsius? Discuss your results.
c. Discuss the difference between the ambient pressure, and the lightning bolt pressure. What does this have to do with thunder?