If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it does it make a sound?

Answer 1

No. Sound is the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium. (see dictionary.com)

If a tree falls in the forest in sole view of a bunch of totally deaf people, it doesn't make a sound either.

Happy to help.

Answer 2

I was forced to think about this question back in high school or college.Here's what I came up with...

1. I don't mean to be funny, but if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, who really cares that it fell in the first place.

2. I think humans are ignorant when we start to think that, in our absence, the laws of physics fail to exist. We seem to think that if there are no humans on earth, the planet is going to cease to operate as "it should".

3. If you built a house in the forest and that tree fell on your house while you were at work, is the lack of your presence going to change the fact that when you come home from work, you're going to discover that mother nature has blessed you with a new coffee table in the form of an oak tree??? I doubt it! The laws of physics seems fairly strong.
Just a thought.

Answer 3

Well, well, same ol' question of bril and wits. It's an agreeable fact that the measure of the existence of the variety we've got in the universe is man. yet, one would also agree that regardless of all that he has knowledge of, there is a vast lot he is yet to discover, but his unknowledge (if u permit me) of these (like if there are particles smaller than protons, electrons and neutrons that make up the fundamental properties of matter) does not annihilate their existence. So also, be there or not a living creature and a tree falls in a forest, it would make a sound, given the many definitions of what sound is, a wave, a disturbance, what any living thing can perceive through their sense of hearing... hope the above made sense..

Answer 4

Yes it makes a sound -- but as stated nobody hears it -- To solve your problem stick a tape recorder in the woods -- if a tree falls you will hear it on the recorder (the recorder is not a somebody)

the definition of sound - Sound is a disturbance of mechanical energy that propagates through matter as a wave. Sound is characterized by the properties of sound waves, which are frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude and velocity or speed.

--- so the tree would definitely create "sound" no matter the circumstance

Answer 5

yes it makes a sound.the forest has lots of life.to name a few-
birds that live in the trees,or birds that might be flying by.I'm sure the tree does not want to hit a bird.or what if a bird has a nest in that tree,the bird is out collecting worms,or thing birds collect for their nests,and the tree is falling it tells that bird sorry about your bad luck.what about ground animal es?the tree has to let them know to get out of the way.or to come,look and see if any critter is hurt,or traped in a hole.what if that tree had a friend tree far away and that friend was sleeping,how they know where they went?or just that last sound it will make now that the wind will never get to blow in it's branches and leaves again.
do you make a sound when you fall,with no one around?

Answer 6

Once, I was in a tree in the forest and it fell, never heard a thing for three days after that either.

Answer 7

I hate this question as if were to believe it doesn't. Not to the person/persons who are not within ear shot, of the sound waves.What is the word for the motion of air that it DOES create?,should be the question.And I can make a pretty good guestimate that that saying was before recording devices were made.

Answer 8

A better question is "... and there is NOTHING around to hear it..." Sound is made when vibrations hit upon an ear drum for humans and higher animals. So, if a person or animal is not around, there is no 'sound' per se.

Answer 9

Since a "sound" is the effect created when "sound waves" (a variation in gaseous or liquid pressure) strike your ear drum, a "sound" is still created.

Just because no one is there to "hear" it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Answer 10

If you hear it you'll think it has made a sound but if you're not there there is no sound for you to hear. But just cause if you're not there doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You can deny something but your denial does not destroy it.