If I slash you to pieces in the forest, killing you, and nobody sees, hears, or smells any evidence of it ever, does that mean you aren't dead and I never killed you?
Sound is the sensation stimulated in the organs of hearing by such vibrations in the air or other medium. According to this definition of sound (and if the tree did not fall so hard that it could be heard worldwide) there would be no sound. There would be created a mechanical wave, but nobody would perceive it, therefore we would not have a sound.
This entire debate is based upon the misunderstanding as to the definition of sound.
Sound is the sensation stimulated in the organs of hearing by such vibrations in the air or other medium. According to this definition of sound (and if the tree did not fall so hard that it could be heard worldwide) there would be no sound. There would be created a mechanical wave, but nobody would perceive it, therefore we would not have a sound.
Goumas is (almost) correct. Sound isn't the sensation, but rather the perception of the sensory stimuli i.e. it has been processed so that when we "hear" it we call it sound.
Of course I'm pretty sure that question was asked well before this formal definition.
Note that this question isn't out of place in the tavern, though as pointed out the people more likely to be interested in answering it frequent the WEPR forum. I'm going to lock the thread this time around, but if the OP wants to recreate the thread in the WEPR they're welcome to do so. My advice would be to then include some discussion on Zen school of thought.
