If A Tree Falls Does It Make A Sound?

[devonin]

Or even the -first- post, instead of just responding directly to the thread title.

[jewpinthethird]

If there is no one there to hear the sound the tree makes when it falls, then it both does and doesn't make a sound.

Of course the tree, when it falls, is going to produce vibrations that are going to travel through the air, therefore the tree does make a sound. However, if no one or nothing is there to react to the vibrations the tree's falling produces (or rather, if no one hears it), then it doesn't make a sound in the audiological sense.

Despite all that mumbo-jumbo, a sound unheard is still a sound nonetheless.

[Reach]

Semantic nonsense...just define your terms to save everyone a whole lot of trouble.

The receiver thing is wrong. Sound is an energy disturbance in mechanical wave form. Sound as perceived through the sense of HEARING requires a receiver but this has nothing to do with the sound itself.

There are also many sounds humans are completely unable to hear, and yes, if there is a sound around you and you can't hear it, there is still a sound there. If you want a receiver that badly, you can think of the matter around the tree through which the sound propagates to be one or many receivers, since you do not need to interpret anything for there to be a sound.

The answer is yes, it does make a sound.

[SpoOkyMagician]

Well, at a logical view point, it WOULD make a sound. Even thou nobody is there to hear it. Everything has some kind of sound of hitting/banging aginst something. (ground/floor/etc.) But from the other point of view, i really do not agree with that it DOESNT make a sound. I explained it above. so yea... =|

[Lamoc]

Since when is nothing, something? Ok there are "sounds" that we can't hear. But if I can't hear it, it's not a sound. As far as i'm concerned, it doesn't exsist. You have to be able to hear something to have it be called a sound.

[Reach]

Originally Posted by Lamoc

Since when is nothing, something? Ok there are "sounds" that we can't hear. But if I can't hear it, it's not a sound. As far as i'm concerned, it doesn't exsist. You have to be able to hear something to have it be called a sound.

A sound wave isn't nothing...

And sorry, much like you can't see me right now, I do exist, and so do the sound waves you can't hear. This argument holds no water at all. Just because YOU can't happen to perceive something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If it did our communication systems wouldn't work very well.


But uh...

You're basically arguing this based on popular misuse of the word 'sound', which has to do with hearing.

A sound, in physics is vibratory disturbances in a gas, liquid, or solid medium and has nothing to do with perception. The question specifically asks if it makes 'a sound' which really doesn't imply the other use such as 'the sound of music'. Music is only our brains perception of mechanical waves. Its 'sound' is inherently incoded into the wave it is making, to the point where the 'sound of music' really is how the sound wave is constructed, because sounds are waves.

So yes, the tree does make sound.


But anyway, for the sake of slaying this:


It's a faulty question that purposely misleads people into arguing with eachother.

[slipstrike0159]

Originally Posted by Lamoc

Since when is nothing, something? Ok there are "sounds" that we can't hear. But if I can't hear it, it's not a sound. As far as i'm concerned, it doesn't exsist. You have to be able to hear something to have it be called a sound.

Dont mistake being naive or oblivious with being right about perceptions in reality. Just because you cannot witness it first hand with your own perception through the senses doesnt mean it didnt or doesnt happen. Its like what reach said about communications, "as far as you would be concerned" history in all its entirety did not happen merely cause you specifically werent there to witness it.

Also, what if you are deaf? Just cause you cant hear sounds doesnt mean they arent there. Existing factual science cannot be discredited because of the difference in perception.

[Nezeru]

I have read the numerous arguments by the same two people saying that sound requires a receiver, and it seems pointless to argue with them as they are not going to change their opinion (and yes, it is an opinion).

1. Nobody cares what an oceanic physics specialist has to say about what is or isn't sound.
2. I still haven't read a reply to the comment about colors on another planet - are they colors if nobody's around to see them? Of course they are. They're on the visible spectrum, and if a person or other color-sensitive creature were there to see them, they would conclude that the colors are there. And guess what? Even if they turned away from the planet, they would still believe that the colors were there.

Here's another example. Say I fire a gun within 100 meters of another person. They will hear a sound. Will they then later think, "Well, maybe it only makes a sound when I'm around!"? If you honestly answer that with a 'yes,' then please stop reading my post and don't reply to it, because you're just going to be reposting the same thing as other people. So let's say this person thinks a gun only makes a sound when fired sometimes, and sets up an experiment in which a series of different kinds of guns are fired 10,000 times each. He will conclude that each and every time a gun successfully fires, it makes a sound. Does that mean that if some mechanism fires off a gun in space, it doesn't make a sound? Here you could argue that it doesn't, because there is no medium for the sound to travel. Except in the gun itself. So there is still sound, you would just have to have your ear pressed against the gun to hear it. (Please don't argue with me about the physics of being able to fire a gun in space, it's just an example.)

However, sound (which I am defining as waves that can be perceived as sound by some living being) does not change its kinetic form just because there's nobody around to hear it. Thus, yes, a tree that falls in a forest makes a sound.

[lord_carbo]

"...the nature of our Universe is determined by the existence and, more particularly, by the number of intelligent beings that exists in it."

http://www.scitizen.com/screens/blog...ntribution=271

[AquaTeen]

If it makes sound wave vibrations it makes a noise. So when the tree falls it causes vibrating sound waves so it makes a noise.