If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?
redapple1121
2005-12-10 14:16:59 UTC
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?
Five answers:
kyoushi
2005-12-10 20:39:29 UTC
The answer to this depends on if you are a physicist or a biologist! A physicist would say "yes" because to him/her sound is vibration of air molecules which will occur when a tree falls.
A biologist, however would say "no" because sound is a perception in the brains of living things capable of perceiving it. The perception is a brain's interpretation of the nerve signals sent to it as a result of vibrations causing the eardrum to vibrate, then the ossicles in the middle ear, then the fluid in the cochlea, then the hair cells etc. There is no sound until a brain perceives it, only vibrating air.
Even if the vibrations are recorded, there is still no sound until the recording is played and heard/interpreted by a capable brain.
computype_99
2005-12-10 20:36:37 UTC
Since sound is nothing more than a vibration, a person does not need to be there for the sound to exist. When the tree falls, the sounds is still created. For example, say no one was in the forest, but there was a microphone hooked up to a transmitter that transmitted all the sounds in the forest to a receiver station far far away. Even though there is no one in the forest, when a tree falls, the sound is transmitted through the microphone, and someone listening at the other end heard the tree fall. There is no one around, but the tree still makes a sound.
Some might argue that the microphone isn't actually transmitting the sound, but sending electromagnetic waves. As true as this may be, the fact remains that the tree still caused the air to vibrate, which is what sound is.
Porter Tennyson Womble
2005-12-10 17:20:24 UTC
"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?"- Alot... Yes, of course it would make a sound, but no human would be able to hear it.
Xebop zeBear
2005-12-10 17:10:07 UTC
If you cover your eyes with your hands, can anyone see you?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
dying_sunny
2005-12-10 14:46:48 UTC
Yes, it makes sound.
By the way nobody hears it.. :)
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