If a cow moos in a pasture, and there is noone around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

Answer 1

The recently fallen tree might hear it.

Answer 2

And I reply with a slew of counter-questions:

#1. Does the cow have working ears?
#2. When you say "noone", do you mean no humans or no other animal life?
#3. What do you mean when you say "sound"? The vibrations emitted through the surrounding area, or the resultant brain-signal in any animal picking up those vibrations through their ears? Something else perhaps?
#4. Is the pasture even in our Universe... or anywhere that follows the same laws of physics as the reality we're most familiar with?
#5. Does it even matter?


I won't presume to give an answer to this question until the worse flaws of language are worn down to give a more true-to-form communication.

Answer 3

Yes. The mooing cow would hear herself at the very least. Or the other cows. Or passing birds. Or even if the cow is deaf & there is no living creature around to hear it, it still makes a sound.

Answer 4

Yes ! The very same Sound Activated Tape Recorder that I used to Prove that a Falling Tree also makes a Sound works equally well on Cows when properly "Mootivated"!

Answer 5

This is one of those dumb questions...my answer is yes it does. but other people will think differently. a good question is what do the majority of people think about it... does it make a moo sound or not if hears the moo sound. Only Lee knows.

Answer 6

There is only sound if, it is perceived by something. Assuming that your cow is alone, with no other lifeforms within hearing distance and your cow is not deaf it will still make a sound.

Answer 7

The cow is around to hear it. Is the cow deaf? Are you trying to say that the cow isn't "someone?" PETA is going to be here in about 5 seconds.

Answer 8

Yes...the cow hears it. And it hears that lonely falling tree in the forest too.

Answer 9

yes.

if you define sound as the propagation of waves....if you define sound as a HUMAN's reception of sound---as in, receiving the signal---and transimitting to human perception form in brain...NO, thatis only a human definition...

so it depends on how you define SOUND...one can be on perception...the other, jsut a physical phenomena...
physical parallel:

if light strikes a place that nobody is seeing...is it still lighted?

in the physical sense, yes...because light is lighting that area --and can be seen by a satelite, for example, even though it isn ever seen by any human.

Answer 10

Unless the cow is deaf, it should be able to hear herself.
So yeah, she made a sound.