How Does Thunder Work?

I was asked recently to write between 250 and 400 words on the topic of what makes thunder work. this had to be presented as if you were talking to an intelligent 7th grader. I need to make room on my lap top for other things and I don't want to simply delete it so I am posting it here for your entertainment and criticism. Enjoy!

The sky is dark with clouds and the wind is kicking up leaves and dirt in the street. The street lamps are giving off a hollow yellow light in the distance. As you stand on the porch you can feel the storm coming. Suddenly the world is frozen in a moment of blue white light and shadow. And again everything is darkness, then…BOOM! The sound bounces off your chest and rocks you back a step. The windows behind you rattle in their frames and you turn to flee the onslaught. Ahem…

It’s just thunder right? We all know there is nothing to be afraid of, but do we really know what creates that loud boom following a lightening strike? Some people will tell you things like: “It’s the Angels bowling.” Or, “That’s Thor in his work shop…making hail.” But they would be completely and utterly, well…wrong. Science, a thing we came up with along our way to being the smartest animals on the planet, tells us that there is a logical explanation to this. Well, sort of.

Lightening, being electricity, and the dangerous part of the “Thunder and Lightening” duo is created by atmospheric friction. Thinking Exercise:

Think of the carpet as wind and your socks as… wind, one warm the other cooler. Well, they rub together and the result is a burst of electricity. Rub your socks on the carpet, touch your sister, run away. Hear that tiny crack before she screamed? That, is thunder.

Thunder, the less dangerous part of T&L results from the lightening moving and superheating the air so quickly that it breaks the sound barrier. The BOOM you hear is literally the air coming back together like a clap. But why the boom? Technically all of this happens at the same time, in a split second. However, light, which is the Lightening part of the equation; travels faster than sound. The lightening appears from the sky so quickly it literally rips a hole in the sky. Seconds later we hear the Boom announcing its passing.

Some will tell you that if you count the seconds between the flash of light and the Crack of Boom, you can tell how many miles away the storm is. I can’t vouch for that, my math is too bad for speculation. But it makes more sense than the “Thor Theory”. I love science.