DAILY MISCELLANY

SCIENCE QUESTION

Why don't lightning and thunder occur at exactly the same time? Actually, they do: thunder and lightning always occur together in a storm. But most people aren’t present at the point where the lightning hits. Instead, you usually witness the event some distance away. The light from the lightning travels much faster than the sound from the thunder, so the light reaches you almost instantaneously. But it takes about five seconds for sound to travel one mile.

This is why that by counting the number of seconds between the lightning flash and the thunder, you can calculate how far away a storm is.

WORD OF THE DAY

coulrophobia [kool-ruh-foh-bee-uh]

Fear of clowns

A neologism seen no earlier than the 1980s and as one source puts it “not from psychology, possibly facetious, though the phenomenon is real enough”. Given new impetus by last year’s “scary clown” craze.

“Do you suffer from coulrophobia? A circus festival in Blackpool opening today is running a workshop to help visitors scared of clowns overcome their fears.” (BBC News, 13 February 2010) To suggest a word of the day, please tap below

IT'S IN THE DETAIL

In which painting by which painter can you find this carving?

Tap here for answer