Discussion about this post

User's avatar
David's avatar

Louisa -- Point of Fact. Sound at sea level air pressure and at 60°F travels ~~760 miles per hour or about .21 miles per second. I also use your count method to estimate -- but it takes to the count of five to guess the distance. Sound also transmits better through humid air; the freight train that I can barely hear in drier summer months becomes a monster when our atmosphere is saturated to the dew point.

Expand full comment
Sheryl Smith's avatar

I learned to count it as one thousand and one, one thousand and two, and so on. We lived 1 mile from a bay on the west coast, so I wonder how that affected the accuracy of our counting. Although, it was very clear when the lightning was upon us and the thunder clap shook the houses! We used to get summer lightning that they called electrical storms. It usually came with warm rain and it was a lot of fun to watch.

I think the biggest achievement of my year was personal growth - my confidence and sense of self grew tremendously. It is amazing to me that we can still grow so much in our later years.

Expand full comment
3 more comments...

No posts