Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 this questiosn allways stumped meif a tree fell in the forest and nobody was around it would it still make a sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrNova Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 yes, just nobody would hear it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 lol not exactlytheres still the matter of it it landed without making a noise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munro Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 @Ninja-Tech:> lol not exactly> theres still the matter of it it landed without making a noisePretty much everything makes a noise when it falls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowwulf Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 where the real question is… when something produces the vibrations in the air that come across as sound and those vibrations are not detected by anything, is it still sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munro Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 I was thinking the same thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 umm idkwat if everyone is deff and the tree falls does it still make a sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianC Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 yes…. its just that no one hears it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 wat if god slows it downand it makes no noise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munro Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 @Ninja-Tech:> wat if god slows it down> and it makes no noise?Then the saying is answered and you ruined it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianC Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 @Ninja-Tech:> wat if god slows it down> and it makes no noise?That's totally random…When a tree falls, sound waves are "generated". Even if nobody hears these sound waves, they are still there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reguba Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 I took a psychology class and this was a question we had to answer lol! Technically, if nothing is in the vicinity to hear the tree it does NOT make a sound. Sound only exists in the human brain, other wise the tree just shook a bunch of molecules in the area. Long story short, sound doesn't exist unless something is around to hear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianC Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 It depends on what definition of sound you are using. I found this one in the dictionary:"Any vibration in the air liable to cause a sensation of hearing."Which would mean that a tree falling would always make a sound, even when nobody hears it.EditA few others:> A kind of energy contained in vibrating matter. Sound travels through solids, liquids, and gases. The eardrums convert this vibrational energy into signals that travel along nerves to the brain, which interprets them as voices, music, noise, etc.> Vibrational energy. A pressure disturbance propagated through a medium and displacing molecules from a state of equilibrium. …> (a) Oscillation in pressure, stress, particle displacement, particle velocity, etc., in a medium with internal forces (eg, elastic or viscous), or …(Am bored) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 yes liable to cause a sense of hearingbut wat if no one aroudn to hear it?no animals no birds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianC Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Read the other ones I quoted. The first one isn't the best example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrNova Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Its an overused "rhetorical" question.It still makes a sound.Billions of lightyears away, planets were being formed, yet no one was around to see them, so it didnt happen?Course it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 hmm true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adulese Games Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Alright, I am not going to go into the detail of sound and its complexities right now as I am tired. To answer your question, by Webster's definition (which I and most of the English-Speaking world goes by), sound is the mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (as air) and is the objective **cause** of hearing. This means that sound is just the vibration of the air molecules and the human brain interperates or "hears" it. Thus, because sound is the actual event that **causes** hearing, it must happen even if no one is around to "hear" it.- Adulese Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khachaturian Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Amen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godlord Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 > If a tree fell in the forest and nobody was around it would it still make a sound?Yes, it would. When the tree falls an impact is made which creates a sound wave, humans can hear this sound wave only if the sound wave consists out of the right set of frequencies and if the sound wave doesn't die to early and if there isn't too much noise of something else. Although, there would still be sound.Regards, The Nameless One. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrNova Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Not to mention there are most likely critters in the woods who hear it.Check.Mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godlord Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Which is the breaker of the question:"If a tree fell in the forest and nobody was around it would it still make a sound?"An insect (I wrote incest here, lol) isn't considered as nobody but nothing, neither is it considered somebody but something.Regards, The Nameless One. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techno 5.0 Posted November 16, 2008 Author Share Posted November 16, 2008 what if there were no critters in the area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianC Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 lol, it doesn't matter if there are critters in the area or whatever. Sound is always generated. The fact that no one hears it doesn't have anything to do with this… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munro Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 @AdrianC:> lol, it doesn't matter if there are critters in the area or whatever. Sound is always generated. The fact that no one hears it doesn't have anything to do with this…Its not "Sound" if its not heard, It's just vibrations then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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