if a tree falls in the woods and know one is around to hear it does it make a sound?

Question

just want to see who gives the most detailed answer

Answer 1

yes, sound occurs no matter if someone is there to listen or not. It doenst need to be any more "thought out" than that

Answer 2

It all comes down to how you define sound. If you take sound to literally mean the waves transmitted through the air and ground by the impact, yes, these are independent of any recipient and will occur anyway. If you take it to mean the sensation of sound as interpreted by the brain when those waves hit the eardrum and trigger nerve signals, then no, that would not occur without there actually being a receiving eardrum and brain!
I guess it also depends on how you define 'No one' - creatures other than humans can perceive sound, so unless it is a very barren woodland, there will always be some bird or beast to hear the sound!

Answer 3

if it was a big tree like a huge grey gum or ghost gum, that was maybe 2 or 3 meters through, i could imagine the solitude of silence as it layed itself down in a moment of tranquility usurping its power as a giant to be master in its own environment. on the other hand the majesty of a king in the forest would want all far and wide to know that the day has come to replenish the soil with the decay of this monster of the forest and would go down in thunder and crashing pulling as many others with it possible in a display of utter glory. ====i hope yahoo does not censor this answer as well ====

Answer 4

Yes, sound is caused by vibrations that travel through the air. The breaking of a wooden trunk will create a lot of vibrations that can reach up to 80 decibels. There does not need for people to be there for it.

The point to that question is to make a person aware of the fact that the world goes on around them whether they are there to observe it or not.

Answer 5

The sounds gonna be there even if youre not around.

The sound of the tree trunk hitting the forests floor. Yep...its like sunshine...the heats gonna be there even if there arent anyone to observe or feel it.

Peace out

Answer 6

You seem to be going back three centuries, to the time of Bishop George Berkely, who argued that matter only existed when someone was around to perceive it in some way. Like Locke before him, Berkeley accepted the empiricist doctrine that all we can know are ideas and that ideas come from perception or reflection. But Berkeley saw a problem in Locke's assertion of an external world of material "substances" giving rise to perceptions. If all we can know are ideas, how can we know there is a world "out there" giving rise to our ideas? Locke had said that the primary qualities of an "external object" (such as extension and solidity) are "utterly inseparable" from the objects themselves, whereas this is not the case with secondary qualities (such as color, taste, etc.). But again, asked Berkeley, how can Locke know this? He cannot get "outside himself" to see which of his perceptions are actually a part of objects "out there." Berkeley concluded that Locke's philosophy will lead to scepticism, whereby we must admit that we cannot really know anything about the world "out there."

To avoid this scepticism, Berkeley made the radical claim that there is no "out there," or, more precisely, there is no matter. Berkeley's position, which is called "idealism," can be summed up in his famous phrase "esse is percipi": to be is to be perceived. What we call "bodies," or physical objects, are simply stable collections of perceptions to which we give names such as "apples," "trees," and so on. These collections of perceptions have no existence apart from a perceiving mind. The answer to the famous conundrum "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" is that if no one is perceiving it, it not only does not make a sound, the tree does not even exist!

Does this mean that trees go out of existence when no one is left in the forest to perceive them and that they come back into existence when someone enters the forest to perceive them again? It would seem that Berkeley must accept this odd conclusion were it not for one important point: God never leaves the forest and God is always perceiving the trees. By always holding all collections of perceptions in the divine mind, God ensures their continued existence and the perceived regularity in what we call "nature." This point has been classically formulated in the following limericks:

There was a young man who said, "God,
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there's no one about in the Quad."

REPLY:
"Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd:
I am always about in the Quad.
And that's why the tree
Continues to be,
Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."

Berkeley saw his philosophy as a common-sense attack on the metaphysical excesses of medieval Scholastics, Continental Rationalists, and even fellow empiricists such as Hobbes and Locke. Although Berkeley understood his philosophy to be common sense, his readers came to different conclusions. One prominent physician of his day claimed Berkeley was insane. The great Dr. Samuel Johnson dismissed Berkeley's ideas with his famous "I refute Berkeley thus" and then he kicked a rock. Of course, this did not refute Berkeley at all. It only proved Johnson had not understood Berkeley's point. Berkeley did not claim the non-existence of stones or that kicking a stone will not produce sensation. He claimed the rock did not exist apart from the perception of its solidity or the perception of pain when struck, and so on. An oft-repeated epitaph summarizes the general reaction to Berkeley: "His arguments produce no conviction, though they cannot be refuted."

Answer 7

yes it makes a sound but the animals in the wood here the sound

Answer 8

it doesnt make a sound it makes vibrations/airwaves it can only be classed as a sound when there is someone or something ie a person an animal or even a microphone, than can convert the vibrations into sound, ie through the brain or through technology

Answer 9

If an atheist says something in a wood and there is no Christian there to hear him, is he still 100% right?

Answer 10

This question depends on what you mean by sound. You're either talking about the perception of sound or just the propagation of pressure fronts.

Answer 11

actually no it does not. In order for sound to exist, it must be heard. without recognition and witness of an event, for all intensive purposes, that event never happened...

If I am deaf and fart in a room all by myself, does that fart make a sound for me ? no
only if another is there to witness and HEAR that fart does it make noise..