does sound exist even if there's no one to hear it?

Answer 1

Of course it does. Sound is just a vibration of air molecules. For example, if a person who is deaf is making sound in a room with only himself there. The sound still exist although no one is there to hear it right?

Answer 2

This is probably a 'philosophy' question, rather than a physics question. "Sound" is what humans call the events that take place in the ear when rapidly oscillating pressure waves move through a medium (air, or perhaps water or even the ground) and reach the inner ear. In the ear, those oscillations cause your eardrum to vibrate, and through a few little bones, those vibrations end up being tranferred to sensory cells that relay the vibrational info to your brain, where you interpret it as "sound".

To be sure, if no-one is there when an owl falls out of a tree and hits the ground, there is a movement of air molecules, and oscillations in pressure move outward from the point of impact as "waves" eminating in all directions, but that is a far cry from saying that any "sound" exists there if there is no-one (or nothing) there to hear it!

Answer 3

Sound is generated when energy compresses air and it propagates via the air medium. These are the laws of physics.

Now, scientist have used the Hubble Telescope to see clear across the galaxy and observe the motion of matter and calculate forces.... what they've found is that even without human presence or influence, that this matter obeys the laws of physics.

The answer is yes.

Answer 4

Of course it does. Existence does NOT require acknowledgment. When the sound waves are interpreted by your inner ear, a message is sent to your brain... this is the "acknowledgment" called hearing... whether or not you recognize it, respond or react. But regardless of whether a receptor (eardrum, brain, recorder, etc.) is working, the sound waves still hit them. For example, turning off the microphone does not equal the elimination (or "turning off" of) the singer... regardless of how much you might wish it.

Answer 5

Depends on your definition of sound.

If you consider that the actual waves that carry the energy to be the sound, then, yes, there is a sound if there's nobody there to hear it.

If you require that the 'sound waves' actually are detected (eg. by vibrating a tympanic membrane [eardrum] or through other electromechanical means [microphone]), then the answer is no.

Answer 6

Yes, proof of sound waves can be demonstrated regardless of whether anyone can hear them.
The trick is in the definition; as Mr. Clinton would say, is it called sound if not heard? By the same logic I didn't do anything that no-one saw; naughty boy syndrome!

Answer 7

Yes if sound is defined as vibrations of air with frequencies between 15 Hz and 18 kHz.
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Answer 8

In reality Sound would exist as it does, but in our own knowledge it wouldn't as no one could hear it. I guess the answer would depend on what context your question is based.

Answer 9

If you are in a material medium (solid, liquid or gas, our atmosphere being a gaseous medium) then yes, it always exists because matter is in constant vibration and vibration produces sound. Then again, if you are outside any kind of material medium, you wouldn't live, would you? (And we can't hear outside our audible frequency, 20hz to 20000hz, but that doesn't mean ultrasound is not sound!)

Answer 10

I guess. People say God exists without seeing or hearing him.