Thunders

[Gerry Iaria]

Hello, I was asleep the other night, when suddenly had a huge thunderstorm, one particular thunder was so loud that it shook the house, I thought I wish I had a subwoofer like that, and then thought, at what frequency, compared to a sub or two, thunders operate? this particular one, must have had some really low frequency to shake the house, just curious, but I thought I'll get people to reply and suggest

 

[Sonnie Parker]

It varies, as some may shake the house while others won't. My guess would be from infrasonic on up to 100Hz or so.

 

[Gerry Iaria]

It varies, as some may shake the house while others won't. My guess would be from infrasonic on up to 100Hz or so.

Wow, that low? It would definitely shake the house a sub line that

 

[Sonnie Parker]

For shaking the house it could be in the single digits.

 

[Michael Boeker]

The house shakes due to the shockwave produced by the 30,000 degree Kelvin lightning bolt that heats the air. A subwoofer can't reproduce the shockwave.

 

[JStewart]

The house shakes due to the shockwave produced by the 30,000 degree Kelvin lightning bolt that heats the air.

How hot is 30,000 Kelvin? In Fahrenheit that’s 50,000 degrees. Still a meaningless number in my frame of reference. But here’s an interesting factoid of temperatures on our sun:

Solar Atmosphere​

Effective temperature: 5772 K
Temperature at top of photosphere: 4400 K
Temperature at bottom of photosphere: 6600 K
Temperature at top of chromosphere: ~30,000 K

So a lightening bolt produces temperatures equal to temperatures on the sun. Yikes that’s hot.

 

[VJM]

I found this..

Within a few hundred feet of a lightning strike, the explosive force of thunder’s sound wave is around 120 dB in intensity.

 

[Todd Anderson]

You know you're into home theater when you awaken at night and start thinking about subwoofers!

Here's a link that answers your question: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/JZ072i024p06149

A dominant 200-hertz peak in the acoustic spectrum of thunder​

The dominant peak in the acoustic spectrum of thunder was determined from two independent studies in which two separate techniques were used. The dominant frequency determined by counting zero crossings in a unit time interval on a pressure versus time record peaked in the range 180 to 260 hz. An average power spectrum of twenty-three thunder records showed a broad maximum near 200 hz. In neither study was there any evidence of a dominant infrasonic component (<20 hz), although the equipment used was capable of measuring frequencies as low as 0.1 hz. A theoretical analysis is presented to show that the observed peak occurs in a frequency range expected to be radiated from a cylindrical source with an energy input per unit length equal to that produced by a lightning flash.



I'd imagine that if the above is generalizable to most thunder, that thunder shaking a house is due specifically to raw power.

 

[Gerry Iaria]

The house shakes due to the shockwave produced by the 30,000 degree Kelvin lightning bolt that heats the air. A subwoofer can't reproduce the shockwave.

wow, didn't know that, impressive

 

[Gerry Iaria]

How hot is 30,000 Kelvin? In Fahrenheit that’s 50,000 degrees. Still a meaningless number in my frame of reference. But here’s an interesting factoid of temperatures on our sun:

Solar Atmosphere​

Effective temperature: 5772 K
Temperature at top of photosphere: 4400 K
Temperature at bottom of photosphere: 6600 K
Temperature at top of chromosphere: ~30,000 K

So a lightening bolt produces temperatures equal to temperatures on the sun. Yikes that’s hot.

and that's another thing that I didn't know, it's amazing what you learn on AV-Nirvana

 

[Gerry Iaria]

You know you're into home theater when you awaken at night and start thinking about subwoofers!

Here's a link that answers your question: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/JZ072i024p06149

A dominant 200-hertz peak in the acoustic spectrum of thunder​

The dominant peak in the acoustic spectrum of thunder was determined from two independent studies in which two separate techniques were used. The dominant frequency determined by counting zero crossings in a unit time interval on a pressure versus time record peaked in the range 180 to 260 hz. An average power spectrum of twenty-three thunder records showed a broad maximum near 200 hz. In neither study was there any evidence of a dominant infrasonic component (<20 hz), although the equipment used was capable of measuring frequencies as low as 0.1 hz. A theoretical analysis is presented to show that the observed peak occurs in a frequency range expected to be radiated from a cylindrical source with an energy input per unit length equal to that produced by a lightning flash.



I'd imagine that if the above is generalizable to most thunder, that thunder shaking a house is due specifically to raw power.

very interesting