How Far Away is a Lightning Strike? One Mile Per Second?

We've all heard that you can tell how far away you are from a lightning strike by counting the seconds from the time you see the lightning until you hear the thunder. Every second counted equals one mile, right? Wrong!

It turns out that we've been giving the speed of sound way too much credit! My parents were in town over the weekend, and my mom introduced me to a show called "Three Scientists Walk Into A Bar". We then watched an episode where their lightning tracking experiment debunked that 'one second per mile' myth. Sound actually takes five seconds to travel one mile. That being said, lightning strikes are, in fact, five times closer than you thought!

During last night's storm, I ended up lying in bed watching, listening, and counting. You'd think that would have helped me get to sleep, but I was so fascinated with what I had learned that my mind was blown with every thunderclap.

Have you ever learned something that contradicted what you've known all your life? Were you intrigued? Were you blown away?