a tree falls down in the woods n no1 is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Question

i think i figured it out but i wanna see if people agree with me..... a sound is made when a vibration hits the eardrum.....yes? in that case, the vibration wouldnt become a sound untill it hit someones eardrum, sooooooo.... the answer must be... no, the tree did not make a sound, it made sound WAVES , but not actually a sound.... am i right???? sorry if i just confused every one

Answer 1

I think you're missing the point of the question, which is how we can know something for sure without having sensed it. (which sort of evolved later into the question of how we can know something for sure, even if we do sense it).
anyways, vis a vis the way you posited the question, it depends on what you mean by "sound". If you consider a soundwave a sound then yes, it makes a sound; if you consider sound only that which we hear, then no, it didn't make a sound.

in other words, it appears your question is really: "If a tree falls in a forest and noone hears the sound it made, did it make a sound?" vs. "If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did anyone hear it?"

Answer 2

Yes the tree makes vibrations in the air but they keep expanding and bleeding away the farther from the source they get.

Answer 3

objects produce sounds and sound waves whether we can hear them or not. have you ever heard an ant eat a piece of corn? i haven't either, but that doesn't mean there's no sound ...
if you perceive "sound" as something that happens to humans only, then I guess the answer you gave to your question is right.
but i think you're really thinking about our sense of hearing ... not the actual presence of a sound or not.

Answer 4

It still made the sound, there just wasn't anyone there to hear it.

Answer 5

If there's no-one around, how do you know it fell? Ah ha!

Answer 6

You fart and no one is around to smell it, does it still stink?

Answer 7

are we allowed to make audio recordings?