if a tree falls...

talk74 and crex81 set about tackling that age old question:

if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around does it make a sound?

perhap you could let us know - cheers!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• if
• tree
• falls
• in
• the
• forest
• and
• noone
• is
• around
• does
• it
• make
• sound
• felling
• deforestation
• silence
• question
• philosophy

[Censeo]

Ok, answer me this then. If a man is in a forest expressing his opinion, and no woman is there to hear it. Is he still wrong?

[talk74]

i think there's a brilliant video in that questions!

[jcdahler]

Okay, let's say I'm a tree in the forest. It's a hard life - outside all the time, dealing with weather and bugs and birds and threat of fire...all that crap. It's a damn hard life, you know? So, after a hundred freakin years I decide to fall down and nobody's around to hear it? Damn straight I'm not going to the trouble of making any sound...what would be the point?

[IIIMastermineIII]

if u die and no one knew about you, did u exist?

[andenisa]

What's the point of this video? Of course it made a sound because you recorded a falling tree and brought the sound to us through this video. So naturally, if we play the video, we'll hear the sound.

But without the video and without someone actually being in the forest, no one can say whether or not the tree made a sound because no one was there to hear it.

Point is, a sound can't exist if it's not heard.

[xx8visionSxx]

err but everything sends sound waves which makes it qualify as sound.

[hairyknuckles1000]

has anyone ever had the idea to plant a camera in a place where a tree falls or is about too and film it? and at least get away 5 or 6 miles from that spot and wait for at least a day?

[TroubleinParadise000]

Well sound is: "the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium."

So technically, if the energy vibrations that would cause sound never reach the 'organs of hearing', then no- it does not make a sound.

[trevdawg62]

THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS ACTUALLY UNANSWERABLE. The only you can put all science together to prove me wrong but even if you say that it does or it doesn't, you are wrong. THE REASON I SAY THIS IS BECAUSE if no one is around to hear it, then no one can prove one answer or the other. You can't prove anything because you can't observe it; the answer is nothing.

[Lrn2science]

PETT (People for the Ethical Treatment of Trees)

[SANTARII]

Ok you win =)

[TerranKyra]

Close, but no cigar. Sine the question is, "does it make a sound" then the answer is always yes. Because vibrational frequency is a form of sound and we know that it would be made. Therefore it makes a sound.

[SANTARII]

I could take what ou just said and flip it a bit and say,

So if the question is, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it create longitudal vibration waves through the air?" THEN the answe is yes. But since that's not the question, the answer is still no.

[TerranKyra]

It doesn't matter. You can't have one without the other. The tree falling makes what would be your sensory stimulus. Therefore it makes sound. So if the question is, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it create a subjective human interpretation commonly associated with sound?" THEN the answer is no. But since that's not the question, the answer is still yes.