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"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Poll

does it make a sound?

discuss

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Well yh. It just can't be heard by some people.

It's sort of like saying:
'If the sun can't be seen by people, is it really there?'


Posted from TSR Mobile
i've heard this phrase somewhere by a rapper or singer, but can't lay my hands on where
Original post by DamnDaniel2
Well yh. It just can't be heard by some people.

It's sort of like saying:
'If the sun can't be seen by people, is it really there?'


Posted from TSR Mobile


i know the sun is there coz if it wasn't i be deaded
Original post by brexitbiscuit
discuss


no

the answer to this question on Quizup on the general nonsense section(around april's fools day)

is no


if no-one is around in hearing range then it doesn't make a sound, yes you can look from far away out of hearing range, although you may see it fall tis does not make a sound :u:
No it does not. Sound is when vibrations that travel through the air are picked up by a person/animal's ear
Yes.

I can't even comprehend why it could be no.
Reply 7
Avatar for oShahpo
oShahpo
20
Original post by Exotoxin
My teachers have shown me this quote in two lessons...

I always thought that the tree didn't make a 'sound' but emitted waves. It would not be classed as making a sound because no one heard it - it is our ears that turn waves into our idea of sound, just like our eyes turn electromagnetic waves into colour and light.

1Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear

That's the Oxford definition. The presence of a recipient is not a defining characteristic of sound. Since the vibrations, air vibrations, produced by a falling tree are, potentially, discernible by an ear, therefore a falling tree produces sound regardless of the presence of someone to turn that potential into actuality. Whether or not that potential is turned into actuality is another matter.

On a broader note, the question while might sound stale and tedious, has been shown to be EXTREMELY interesting when one considers matter at the quantum level, where particles do, in fact, behave differently depending on the presence of a "recipient" of information.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 8
Avatar for oShahpo
oShahpo
20
I respect your jam :P
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by DamnDaniel2
Well yh. It just can't be heard by some people.

It's sort of like saying:
'If the sun can't be seen by people, is it really there?'


Posted from TSR Mobile


Not really. We can blatantly see the sun.
not the right analogy.
If a person speaks in Australia, and I am in England, I know they have spoken, and therefore emitted a sound, even though, I personally, cannot hear that sound.

The tree falls, therefore makes a sound, whether it be in a forest or not. Nobody hears it, but it is a sound that is made by that tree falling.
Reply 11
Avatar for math42
math42
20
Depends on your definition of sound. For instance from wikipedia..

"In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as a typically audible mechanical wave of pressure and displacement, through a medium such as air or water. In physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain."

So by the first definition there is sound. By the second, there isn't.
If "sound" is the wave of air molecules propagating from the impact of a tree falling to the ground, then yes, we could say that even if a listener is not present, they do indeed make a sound.
If I fired a missile at an isolated island with no one on it, does it make a noise?

Just because no one is there, this doesn't mean that the vibrations stop so to answer your question, yes, it does make sound.
Sure it can. Set up a camera and mic. Go home. Come back after it falls and watch the recording...
Depends on your definition of sound I suppose.
Original post by RomanKing
Not really. We can blatantly see the sun.
not the right analogy.


Not at night time you can't


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the sound waves exist via the vibrations, so "yes", obviously
Original post by DamnDaniel2
Well yh. It just can't be heard by some people.

It's sort of like saying:
'If the sun can't be seen by people, is it really there?'


Posted from TSR Mobile


Consciousness must exist. Without it the tree or the sun dwells in an undetermined state of probability.

Posted from TSR Mobile
No one heard it but it still made a sound, because I can't think of anything in the world that makes zero noise.

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