Thunder and lightning

How far away was the lightning if the flash and the thunderclap were 6 seconds apart?

Problem



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Thunder and Lightning
Sound travels at about 330 metres per second; light travels so fast that it arrives almost instantaneously. If you time the gap between a flash of lightning and its clap of thunder as 6 seconds, roughly how far away is the storm?



If you liked this problem, here is an NRICH task which challenges you to use similar mathematical ideas.