Why is lightning faster than thunder?

Lightning is faster than thunder because light travels quicker than sound.

Imagine you're on a playground and your friend shouts from across the field. You hear their voice after a little delay, that’s like sound. But if they flash a bright light, you see it almost instantly, that’s like light.

Lightning is made of super-fast electricity, which creates a bright flash. This flash travels at almost the speed of light, which is super fast, like zooming from one end of the playground to the other in a blink!

Thunder happens when lightning heats up the air around it, making it vibrate and create sound. Sound moves much slower than light, like walking across the playground instead of zooming.

So even though lightning and thunder happen at the same time, you see the lightning first and hear the thunder later, just like seeing a flash before hearing a shout!