Is sound the movement of air or the effect that has on the brain?
2006-06-28 23:10:42 · 29 answers · asked by john w 1 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
How do we know it has made a sound if we cant hear hear it.
The tape recorder idea doesnt work as it is the recording that you will hear, not the tree. Just like looking at a photo is different from looking at the real thing. It proves nothing.
2006-06-28 23:24:53 · update #1
OH..and in case any one thinks I mean that no PERSON was there to hear it...I am a buddhist and make no distinction between beings of any kind, whether they are insects, whale fishes, cows humansetc....... So when I say no-one I mean no sentient being of any kind..OK?
2006-06-30 01:59:53 · update #2
No. It makes a vibration. A sound is an interpretation of a vibration. If we don't experience it, it remains a vibration, but not a sound.
A tape-recording does not answer your question. The tape recording picks up the vibration and when we listen to it, it becomes a sound - our interpretation of the information provoded to us. tehre isn't a sound trapped in the tape-recorder waiting to escape is there? No, it's an elctric or digital recreation of the vibration.
Lol well that's my opinion anyway!
2006-07-04 02:37:12 · answer #1 · answered by old_but_still_a_child 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
no... to make sound you need a source (tree), medium (air) and receiver (you, or an animal) if there is nothing to react to the vibration in the air, then it is just vibration in the air... a cooler question would be "if a tree falls in the woods and there is only a tape recorder recording it, does it only become sound when you hear it played back?" see, sound is just a word that has a definition which I stated... and who makes the words? humans... so naturally the word relates to our reaction and we f*** ourselves in semantic love sack when you take a perfectly benign tree and put it in a position like that... poor tree... and there is a way to prove it... put a tape recorder next to the tree and record when no one is present... then play the tape back with no speakers and just look at the EQ spikes... The recorder has shown a representation of the vibration the tree made... Then make an MP3 out of it and Tattoo the binary into a bar-code that wraps around your entire body... THEN next time you go to the grocery store jump on the register and scan yourself, when you look at the receipt a tree will simultaneously fall on your tattoo artist... it's creepy, but It really works!
2006-06-29 06:24:29 · answer #2 · answered by Michael C 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes of course it makes a sound as any Physicist/Engineer/Scientist will tell you. The reason I know all of these people will agreee with me is the Law of Conservation of Energy. It states that energy cannot be created or destroyed it can only be transferred or transformed. Before the tree falls it has a high gravitational potential energy (mgh), as it falls this is transferred to kinetic energy (1/2 mv^2), when the tree lands on the floor this energy is then transformed into sound.
So there you go, even though nobody hears it sound is produced and there is the scientific reasoning behind it!
2006-06-29 06:22:16 · answer #3 · answered by ehc11 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sure it does, and you can prove it.
leave a tape recorder at the site. Put some dynamite on the tree with a timer. If it makes a sound, it will be recorded. If it doesn't you'll discover that.
However sounds are made up of colliding air particles. Whether or not you are there will not affect the air particles interacting with each other.
2006-06-29 06:15:58 · answer #4 · answered by Ender 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you ever heard of Schrodingers cat? Very simply - if a cat was to be put in a box and then exposed to lethal gases, would the cat be aware of its own death? The purpose of the experiment was to illustrate a paradox. Without being to elaborate - how do we know that things happen when we have no sense of reality. Schrodingers experiment is a lot more in depth than my simple description, but the fact that there is no real answer illustrates the paradox - just as your question illustrates the same.
2006-07-05 04:28:31 · answer #5 · answered by Robbie B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer is obviously yes it does. Your question makes an assumption that because no PERSON is there it isn't heard. There are lots of animals besides humans, and they can all hear. If you're suggesting that there's a forest somewhere in the world with no animals or insects of any kind in it, then you're surely wrong.
2006-06-29 14:48:58 · answer #6 · answered by simcox1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sound is movement of air, (this is what is picked up by ears). So even if you are not there to hear it, the falling tree will still disturb the air around it (thus making a sound).
2006-06-29 06:24:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it makes sound. Sound is produced here, by movement of air due to fall of tree. The leaves of tree causes friction with air which results in energy being produced which takes the form of sound.
2006-06-29 06:14:43 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It does make a sound, dear. The brain just affords us the opprtunity to perceive it.
So Yes, Sound is the movement of the air....
And our ability to hear it is the effect it has on the Brain
2006-06-29 06:51:32 · answer #9 · answered by cookie_recipe 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it made a sound and you did not hear it, then that's your problem not the tree's.
The tree's got enough problems of its own (it is falling isn't it?) without having to worry about whether anyone heard it or not.
2006-06-29 06:17:21 · answer #10 · answered by JustAskMe 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋