Questions on Light

Q5. Thunder and lightning happen at the same time.

(a) We see the flash of lightning before we hear the thunder. Give the reason for this.

Light travels faster than sound

1 mark

(b) Omar investigated the movement of a storm. He measured the time between seeing a flash of lightning and hearing the thunder. He did this six times. Omar put his results in a table.

Flash of lightning

Time between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder, in seconds

A

8.0

B

5.0

C

3.0

D

9.0

E

13.0

F

16.5

 

Omar drew a bar chart of his results as shown below.

(i) On the bar chart, draw a bar for flash D. Use a ruler.

see diagram

1 mark

(ii) Which flash of lightning was closest to Omar?

The closest one will be the one he hears first - the one with the shortest time between the flash and bang.

C

1 mark

(iii) Describe how the distance between the storm and Omar changed as the storm moved between flash A and flash F.

any one from:

  • the storm became closer then moved further away
  • accept 'the storm passed over' or 'it passed by'
  • the storm came towards and then away from Omar

1 mark max

Maximum 4 marks