John Olsen, age 11, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, for his question:

Do lightning and thunder follow the same path?

A cumulonimbus cloud, alias a thunderhead, is a misty mass of turbulence. Its wild winds whirl up and down and around in all. directions. These motions create friction between masses of warm and cool, damp and dry air. Electrons are brushed from their molecules, separating particles with positive or negative electrical charges. As the hu.rlv burly continues, opposing charges build up in different parts of the cloud. This dynamic tension is discharged with a flash of lightning that creates a peal of thunder.

The lightning takes the form of a searing streak that forces a jagged path through the misty cloud. Its heat causes air along the path to expand    and explode with a thundering roar. The flash and the boom do indeed originate along the same path through the cloud. From there they both spread forth in all directions. But the thunder dawdles forth at the speed of sound    about one mile in five seconds  ¬while the lightning travels, naturally, at the speed of light.