Forums → WEPR → If a Tree fell in the Forest...

you're all wrong. the answer is no one will ever know. it might make a sound or it might not. since you can't prove it because you aren't there you'll never know because you can't prove something unless you test it but you can't test it because you can't be around to hear it.
It's like me saying theres one magical rock in the world. then you say thats not true. if i say prove it you would have to look at every rock in the world and even if you did that (even though its impossible) you wouldn't know how to use the rock so you might of passed it over. see you can't prove it at all. just like the tree because your not there because you cant be

@ blazer. well seeing how there are 2 sides to this, someone is right, the other is wrong. and your expample is fiction, find a better one. and there is science to support that there is sound a(though a good deal beleive this science means no sound). i do believe that the wave themselve should be considered sound, but no one is saying the sound isnt there, so right or wrong one side knew

sound doesn't need to be heard to exist. there are sound frequencies that are to high or low for any discovered species to detect. if we still consider this sound, the the tree makes one as well.

Of course it makes a sound, why wouldn't it?

It makes a sound, just no one is there to hear it. If you had a camera or microphone there, it would pick up the sound, even if it was floating.

when i cut down trees, if i wear ear protectors (which i don't ever), and if my chainsaw is running, i cant hea it, but the ground shakes, and if you dig the roots and cut them individually, in hte case of harvesting a burl, you can feel the smaller roots, and the tap root popping, sending not only audible, bu tangible vibrations through the air, and ground.

i guess it comes down to perception, if no entity is there that can pick up sound waves and convert them into audible frequencies, then how do we know if it would make sound. although the definition of sounds suggest that sound is just vibrations, does a dog whistle make noice. just because we can't pick up the high tones, does not mean they are not there.

I'm going to have to completely pwn this question with the definition of sound:

1. Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing.

Soooo, yes, if a tree falls in the forest and no creature is around to hear it the physics involved in the tree falling will create vibrations in the air surrounding the event which will fall in the range of sound and are capable of being detected.

if a tree falls on a mime, does it make a sound?

oh noes the noisy tree might kill a animal.

If a troll posts in a dead thread, does anyone care?

I kind of do think that it makes a sound, and that it's just awfully inconvenient that nobody's really around to hear it.

ok, heres the senario.

if i killed a guy just because i wanted to, and nobody was there to see it/hear it, and nobody but me knows that i killed the guy, does that mean that i hadnt killed him?

If you had a camera or microphone there, it would pick up the sound, even if it was floating.

There is no sound recorded on the tape until someone chooses to listen to it.

no seriously, its a good question, but sound waves are defined as vibrations. If no one hears them, that doesnt mean it isnt sound. It's like if there is a tree in the forest, and no one is there to see it, it isn't invisible.

well my opinion is yes it would because no matter what other trees are living thing and there have to be other types of living things around that can hear eg. birds spiders and other creatures u find in a Forrest.