Why Doesn't All Thunder Sound The Same?

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We've all experienced thunder, but what ARE all those claps, booms, and rumbles?
LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
Shock wave: a sharp change of pressure in a narrow region traveling through a medium, especially air, caused by explosion or by a body moving faster than sound
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CREDITS
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Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
neptunestudios.info
OUR STAFF
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Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia Rius
David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez
Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich
Peter Reich • Ever Salazar • Kate Yoshida
OTHER CREDITS
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“thunder3.ogg” by Josh74000MC of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/Josh7400...
“Drythunder1.wav” by juskiddink of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/juskiddi...
“Thunder-rain-middle-distance.wav” by ragamuffin of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/ragamuff...
“Thunder.rumble.ogg” by xUMR of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/xUMR/sou...
“Rain, moderate, b.wav” by InspectorJ of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/Inspecto...
“Electric-gas-stove-ignite.wav” by squidocto of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/Squidoct...
“Breaking the sound barrier” by thenudo of freesound.org
freesound.org/people/thenudo/...
“Whip crack b.wav” by cetsoundcrew of freesound.org
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“Party Pack, Balloons, Popping, 02-01.wav" by InspectorJ of freesound.org
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REFERENCES
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Blanco, F., La Rocca, P., Petta, C. and Riggi, F. (2009) Modelling Digital Thunder. European Journal of Physics 30: 139-45. iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
Depasse, P. (1994) Lightning acoustic signature. Journal of Geophysics Research 99: 25933-25940. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
Jagadeesh, G. (2008) Fascinating world of shock waves. Resonance 13: 752-767. www.ias.ac.in/public/Volumes/...
Matson, W.R. (2018) Sonic Thunder: a Discussion of Natural and Artificial Shock Waves. Morgan and Claypool Publishers.
Sidath, A., Bodhika, J.A.P., Mahendra, F. (2016). Frequency Analysis of Thunder Features. Proceedings of International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP). www.researchgate.net/publicat...

[@MinuteEarth]

We're consistently thunderstruck by your support for MinuteEarth! Want to become our Patreon or member on KZbin? Just visit www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth or click "JOIN". Thanks!

[@dudegamingproductions5459]

Ok thx anyways have 50 works due so bye

[@reanusbeangus6713]

They have discovered time travel

[@roxylius7550]

@@reanusbeangus6713 donation contributors and the owner get to see and comment the video before it is released to everybody else

[@pegamationproductions6062]

Okay, seriously, why does every single one of your videos need to have a sponsor? Is it because your company isn’t making enough money to pay your employees?

[@arbazna]

Let's keep PA Red!

[@marcoswappner8331]

Whoever in the team decided that this video needed rain sounds in the background rather than the usual music deserves something good happening to them.

[@MinuteEarth]

That was our awesome illustrator Sarah!

[@marcoswappner8331]

@@MinuteEarth well, give Sarah a cookie, please.

[@dibenp]

Agreed. She deserves a cookie. - Totally Not Sarah

[@wertiop285]

was that sarcasm?

[@wofls2713]

when are you going to post thunderstorm ASMR

[@xxlexidragonxx8716]

MinuteEarth, giving us questions and answers we never knew we needed, since 2013

[@JoseVasquez-pg6or]

Oof

[@darkbobblackpants9747]

Oof

[@jownadel1526]

Don't forget that minute physics has been around for even longer

[@cinnamondreams]

Pretty much

[@EdbertWeisly]

To be fair that is a blessing especially when there is quarantine

[@waterunderthebridge7950]

Me touching anything metal after taking off my sweater: “The last lightning Bender: Great power comes with a great cost”

[@flaredemon9959]

XD.. underrated comment my friend !!!

[@razielhamalakh9813]

Oh god. I thought "a perfect _storm_ of sound" was your pun for the video, and then you had to go and sucker punch me with "Thor-igin stories".

[@schino]

haha yes, that pun was rather *shocking*

[@AryaBaskara]

@@schino Get out.

[@alexandermcclure6185]

@@AryaBaskara What? Are all these puns too *electric* for you?

[@shinigami7800]

I love the sound of rain and thunder idk why but it makes me feel like I’m watching the birth and death of the universe

[@casparvoncampenhausen5249]

I love it too

[@deathbyseatoast8854]

@@amiyavatsa r/ihavereddit

[@shinigami7800]

@@amiyavatsa I was gonna get mad at you but I realized you like sabaton 2

[@shinigami7800]

@@amiyavatsa Wilhelm's forces on the hunt

[@JustANervousWreck]

@@amiyavatsa r/ithreehavereddit

[@ijlalmuhammed8166]

All that rain sounds made me sleepy

[@DANGJOS]

You should try ASMR

[@STNG17-]

I found it pretty relaxing to hear thunder rumble in this video, interesting.

[@greencandle1399]

A nightmare for me

[@lamargoat2.054]

​@@greencandle1399 lol are you still a kid?

[@robert-andreiionita2827]

@@lamargoat2.054Uncalled for. You never know what a person might have been through in life.

[@robert-andreiionita2827]

@@lamargoat2.054Uncalled for. You never know what a person might have been through in life.

[@lamargoat2.054]

@@robert-andreiionita2827 still shouldn't be afraid of a nice sound that's made by nature

[@Sciencerely]

Speaking of hearing the other day I read something very interesting about gene therapy to cure hearing loss. Normal hearing aids are based on a microphone which picks up sounds and converts it to electrical pulses (here you can distinguish roughly between 20 tones). In this new approach, however, neurons in the ear are genetically modified to respond to light. When micro-LEDs are then placed into the ear neurons can be stimulated in a very controlled manner which cures deaf people and makes them even hear better than healthy individuals (I made a video about this a long time ago) What I just thought was how people with such new implants would hear thunder..

[@the_choseperson4415]

That’s interesting

[@ronwesilen4536]

They could hear ligtning 😮

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Awesome! So an episode on that?

[@NadDew]

I have this idea since Elon Musk announced neuralink What if we connect the neuralink directly to hearing part of the brain with high resolution mic Or we connect the neuralink to the visual part of the brain with some kind of a high resolution camera Would that cure blindness/hearing loss in the world?

[@ronwesilen4536]

@@NadDew it.isnt that easy sadly. Not all parts of the brain habe the necesary connections to work senses, and neuralink is definitely limited in that regard. You may be able to solve a few more people's problems than with cochlear implants and other resources but definitely wont be able to solve all of it (at least with current state of science and neusoscience in particular)

[@sanchittripattiwar7891]

Watching this wearing headphones. Pure bliss❤️

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

And then along came ZEUS!

[@lildrawhub1025]

He hurled his THUNDABOLT

[@primuse.x.e6141]

Lol

[@giuzeppeedreimeimban1019]

He zapped! Locked those suckers in a vault..

[@justaguywhoismiserable8509]

They’re trapped And on his own stopped Chaos in its tracks

[@TCt83067695]

And that's the gospel truth!

[@leopignataro]

I live on a region that every year goes through a roughly 100-day-long drought. Air humidity routinely drops below 20%, sometimes below 10%. Right now, we are in the last days of this period (hopefully). You have no idea how comforting these sounds were to me :)

[@revmedia8108]

Yep, I just learned that thunder isn’t always the same noise. Much love, your friends at Rev Media!!

[@beta_banter3013]

This video is so nice to see! You explain everything with such a simple and easy to understand way that you cant miss a single thing from the explanation! Amazing vid and keep up the amazing job!

[@bracco23]

the lack of the usual background music, replaced by rain for the whole video, completely threw me off!

[@jinjunliu2401]

How does everyone notice this ahaha, I never knew there was any background music until now and only realised there was rain sounds until I read the comments

[@smurfyday]

Wow, never occurred to me.

[@blakestartsev1239]

what how did you comment this the video was uploaded 5 mins ago

[@Hawkenshmire]

I see what u did there

[@HeavenStarQuit]

Tell me

[@FrostDeino]

@@blakestartsev1239 members see it early. Though I thought members usually have a little logo next to their name? So I dont really know

[@1kwithabunchofplaylist..382]

@@blakestartsev1239 this happens when a video is uploaded but then deleted on reuploading the video it comes with all the likes and comments it received at first upload look at minute earths own comment

[@waterunderthebridge7950]

Them: *Clap Boom* Me: “...the sound of my heart. The beat goes on and on and on and on~”

[@jaliyahcook7557]

And boom clap you make me feel good 😂

[@teafool753]

Thunder is just god farting (that's what I thought when I was young)

[@shantanu9393]

😂

[@ayushagrawal6996]

I thought it was just some guy who had tacobell.

[@oliviagreen7423]

One of my childhood friends kinda half believed it was the angels bowling🎳

[@shinigami7800]

Well my friend thought that rain was god peeing on us

[@shinigami7800]

And thunder storms where really bad days you know what I mean

[@kthfox]

I never thought a video this interesting could nearly put me to sleep.

[@WhyAnkurGautam]

Really good illustration with sound and terminologies

[@jorgealexandre4616]

By the way, there are "two kinds of thunder", that happen in quick succession. The first is the stepped leader (honestly, I had to google this one 'cause I didn't remembered the exact name), and it goes from the cloud to the ground. The second is the exact opposite: it goes up, from the ground to the sky. This last one is called return strike. They aways happen in quick succession and are followed by hundreds of smaller strikes that can happen in less than a second. The first two leave ionized path behind, and the light of the lighting is actually caused by all the ionized gas.

[@Jerbod2]

Another thing: I once noticed how a thunderbolt can look way brighter when looking out onto a field (with the lightning behind you) in one part of the field than another part of the field. Then it struck me (lol) lightning happens in the clouds (and around it) so obviously it still has shadows just like the sun does. Thus brighter and darker spots.

[@gargipopere]

Nice now I can figure out the proximity of thunder while enjoying my tea

[@kcosminhz7988]

how can you "not like" a video like this? this is so cool, thanks guys!

[@gardenhead92]

It makes perfect sense that any shockwave will consist of a wide range of frequencies. signals that have a narrow band in the time domain will have a large band in the frequency domain. This is a result of Fourier transforms and essentially the same phenomenon that underlies the Heisenberg uncertainty principle!

[@Ryukachoo]

I appreciate the rainymood background instead of the normal kickstarter music

[@redcoat4348]

Same here, fits the mood very well.

[@leptyga]

This was strangely beautiful and sort of calming. Thanks!

[@GXShade]

0:10 When I was younger my mother always told me that the angles were bowling and every time you hear thunder one of them got a strike.

[@itsthevoiceman]

I already had a solid understanding of thunder, since meteorology was a hobby of mine as a kid. What I didn't expect to learn was the AUDIO FREQUENCY VISUALIZATIONS. That has always broken my brain when I worked with Audition, and now I get it! THANK YOU!! Also, having grown up in Texas, I really miss thunder now that I live in Southern California.

[@outfit7_bloons55]

0:24 Animation error: Paper of lightning charges are Positive + up and Negative - down, So instead they balanced charges in the wrong, same difference on the paper. 0:52 (NOT AN ERROR, INFO!)Lightning can extreme heat the air up to 50,000°F (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun), When lightning discharge current superheats the air, Air itself became extremely heated that causes the thunder sound pressure to be super-pressurized in the frequency that explode outward from an expanded, contracted and compressed air of heat, which forms as a supersonic rated explosive shockwave like a jet, this may transition to an blast acoustic wave of air being pushed all away like the wind possibly and now we hear as thunder. However, the radiation of superheat air shockwave may scare people and it needs to take shelter in an untouched-metal automobile that is made of hardtop! Safety: When you hear thunder, You're closer to the bolt. So carry a good set of earplugs always for protection, stay inside an automobile or at home. When you see lightning, please consider use some closing eye products for a bright prevention/protection When you experience lightning strikes in a thunderstorm, try a lightning rod! Lightning rods are extra conductor of electricity and protect lightning strikes from striking in your home by snapping down inside of a rod.

[@PoweredMinecart]

What a fantastic video. Well done MinuteEarth team.

[@ricq]

all the sound, even narration, was crisp AF on the whole video :) thanks!

[@sirohartmann]

This was an amazing video! It felt somewhat old school MinuteEarth but also had the quality of modern videos.

[@Ddddddddddd381]

The sound mixing on this video was fantastic

[@chicoktc]

If you've even been close enough to a thunder you'd understand the crack the whip reference. It doesn't even sound like you'd expect of a thunder, it sounds like you just broke off a huge branch from a tree, but in a fraction of a second. It's really loud and different then when it's far. Where I'm from we get massive thunderstorms literally in our backyard every summer

[@sergi8950]

Really liked the video! So well explained and the thunder sounds were so accurate! ⛈

[@AerospacePotato]

This video was both intensely interesting and overwhelmingly calming for me, and exactly what I didn’t know I needed.

[@rahulg2704]

The sounds are so accurate and relatable❤️. Nice work

[@Two_Hand_magic20]

Thank you so much for this video❤🎉

[@Terraspark4941]

thank you very much for all the thunder/rain ASMR, i swear this video has done better than any storm video on the internet 😂

[@stefanadamek367]

This is so interesting! Thank you!

[@MCAlexisYT]

One time, there was a thunder-strike near me that sounded like what I could only describe as "a recycling bin tumbling down a flight of stairs".

[@bitey-facepuppyguy2038]

This is so much more nuanced than the classic how far away is the storm counting. Many different sources of thunder in a given storm....at varying distances.

[@princedeluca27]

im writing a script and zaptos is a key element to the story. i love that you have that pokemon on your video

[@antemajetic2394]

In terms of sound, this was one of the most pleasing video of yours to date.

[@daniels9720]

“Thorigin” earned that thumbs up from me. Best pun of the day!

[@tusharkuntawar6170]

Awesome work

[@androkles04]

As many others have pointed out, the ambience of rain in this video is a wonderful creative decision. Well done.

[@sonicfan82]

The rain was super relaxing, but the thunder wasn’t.

[@jusxon]

This was a great and simple explanation!

[@JoseVasquez-pg6or]

Love ur work

[@wolfbd5950]

Listening to this video with the subwoofer cranked was surprisingly relaxing. There are almost never any thunderstorms where I live now, so this really brought back my childhood, as weird as that sounds ;)

[@mkdragonfruit9294]

I surprisingly already knew A lot of the stuff you said I'm rather proud of myself I had to learn it in class but it's a lot more interesting to hear from you guys lol

[@giantcomet4]

Great video!

[@a_e_hilton]

Having the rain sound in the background in this video was a great idea! I feel like I'm being relaxed and educated at the same time

[@totalynotcatherine]

The rain in the background, great touch.

[@nonnnth]

Wow, I’ve never thought of where the rumble came from, but when you say it, it all make sense.

[@danteregianifreitas6461]

This video was SO relaxing

[@claypunk7718]

Can't believe I've never asked myself that question! Love this video

[@BattlewarPenguin]

The raining in the background makes me love this video even more

[@Apostate_ofmind]

thats so fascinating!

[@imsyed5]

Glad you cover My fav topic in Kate's voice (My fav voice)

[@rubenlarochelle1881]

The most relaxing MinuteEarth video to listen to.

[@enjoythelife1]

This video is so relaxing. I miss hearing storm in full detail

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

Your diagram excludes one important aspect of certain, very rare, lightning strikes know as positive lightning. Because they originate from the positively charged upper region of the cloud, and have to cut through the negatively charged lower layer, then are vastly more powerful.

[@brainandforce]

Negative lightning often sounds like a snare drum with overlapping crackling, but positive lightning just sounds like a bomb - one single clean shockwave that's extremely resonant.

[@jackcr2477]

I've never really gotten asmr, but listening to all these thunder sounds with the rain in the background made me feel soooo good

[@mspotato138]

Love the ambience, raining sounds instead of music, gives an amazing feeling

[@jakobbruhspenning]

I love the sound that's discribed as boom, that's just so amazing.

[@Khalilmack52]

the idea of a giant bird flapping its wings and thor's chariot sound like pretty cool ideas

[@elanianiyvwia8687]

Love this channel.

[@Mu51kM4n]

I'm genuinely impressed with the number of puns you can pull off in each of your videos

[@MariaMartinez-researcher]

Chilean quarantined in Buenos Aires, where rainstorms can last for days. This explains a lot. 💞

[@somerandoontheinternet4224]

Dude ... this video sounds so much better when its really raining outside, that combined with the rain in the video itself make it feel so good

[@WTFThatsWhatSheSaid]

"Thorigin stories" was perfect and I adored it!

[@lazylemon118]

This sounds so relaxing

[@lakshaya]

you're awesome thanks for the knowledge

[@lucimicle5657]

It was so satisfying to listen to this.

[@subwaviaball]

Your videos are so cool :)

[@DheerajBhaskar]

A few other videos on youtube explained thunder as the sound from the implosion when the lightning creates a partial vacuum. Thanks for clarifying that this sound is from an explosion due to lightning super heating the air. Wait, could it be both sounds from explosion and implosion as it's not a single note?

[@tanishqbharati]

Thank you for this, now I can brag to my friends!!

[@hellmastahh]

I love that you put Zapdos as graphics

[@9034833838]

Minute Earth ASMR series. I love this

[@_inked_out]

Watching this while being in a thunderstorm definitely put a smile on my face 😊

[@sagacious03]

Okay video! Thanks for uploading!

[@AUSTINBGRANT]

That “Rain Check” pun was too smooth

[@sadlogic]

I love the sound - or all the different sounds - of thunder!

[@okamiarts4961]

Please make more videos with ambient sounds 💚💚💚

[@sonicfan82]

If they were able to do that, I don’t want it to be two versions one with the thunder, because people find that to be relaxing, and one without the thunder because there are people here that find thunder is scary to them because of their life experience with that.

[@jaketheperson8495]

MinuteEarth always make me say "Why have I never thought of this?"

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

Excellent use of puns. A real banger of a vid.

[@PTNLemay]

The ASMR levels for this video are off the charts (sorry I couldn't think of a pun). Good choice having all that rain in the background.

[@slinpy2.o710]

Love your video

[@tmrevenge]

You guys are great. Thank you so much for your hard work educating all of us. But we need a few puns now and then in the vids XD

[@Need2disconnect]

Oooo I really like the constant raining sound instead of typical music

[@anonymousdude2550]

What a great 3d binural thunder video with education 😌

[@DaHaiZhu]

A nice downpour with rolling thunder and the slight hint of ozone is one of the most relaxing experiences I know.

[@lamargoat2.054]

I swear I feel so relaxed when that happens

[@jmaghribi]

the information is awesome, and the puns are even punnier!

[@precisa_]

It's condusing and interresting to watch this video during an actual thunderstorm

[@Nwl11]

What would be a ball-park estimate of the distance at which you can hear it as a crisp clap?

[@HarryD326]

Watching this during a bad thunderstorm hits different

[@acesuth3231]

I really never thought about that

[@michaelveis6498]

The shock wave can be dangerous if you are standing very near the lightning strike. On episode, a stormchaser got knocked 15 feet into the air by the shock wave. He was hurt and had to go to the hospital.