is it true ?

Question

is it true trees dont make any sound when they fall in an empty wood. i cant believe it. why do they make a sound when your there?

Answer 1

They make a sound no matter what. You dont controll sound so why would the sound just decide to stop when your not there.

Answer 2

A falling tree will produce sound waves, yes but these will only become audible when they enter an ear and vibrate the tympani membrane to produce a signal that is interpreted as a sound by a brain. If they don't enter an organism's ear they just keep travelling until they hit and object and bounce off it. Then they just keep on reverberating.

The question is a hypothetical scenario. Of course, if there is no organism capable of receiving auditory information, it will not make a sound. The vibration will never be received by anything. It is a fairly unlikely scenario because in a wood, there is an abundance of life capable of hearing sound. Thus, just because there is not a human present, doesn't mean the sound wont get heard. It is meant to be a scientific riddle, not a real question.

Answer 3

Technically this is because inannimate objects do not nor can they make things. Trees falling however, would be accompanied by the vibrations of sound permitting that the tree actually fell onto or into something. Were this trully an empty wood there would be no tree though and therefore no actual "wood" as it were.

Answer 4

I believe that trees can scream but not to our frequency also there are millions of life inside a tree (ie. bugs, creatures etc) and they probably panic when they realise their home is being demolished and set off codes and secret signals to others.

I believe that plants are living things and do not have the same sound frequency as us so we cannot really hear them communicate.

Some people (ie. Prince of Wales) believe in talking to their plants or have music being played to them, encourages them to grow better.

Here's an interesting article.....

The United States Department of Agriculture has learned that plants "scream" chemically when attacked by caterpillars. Corn plants, for example, release a chemical signal when mixed with the saliva of the caterpillar.

This signal attracts wasps which lay their eggs in the caterpillar, eventually killing the caterpillar and saving the plant.

If the leaf is cut or injured in some other way, the chemical signal is not emitted.

Only when the caterpillar saliva mixes with the damaged portion of the leaf is the signal given off.

Because of this elaborate system, a wasp can seek out caterpillars in a huge corn field and stop large scale damage. James Tumlinson, of the USDA says soybeans and cotton plants have a similar defense against pests.

We are only beginning to understand how many natural protective mechanisms are built into the environment to help us and protect us.

Some pesticides may kill the wasps and not the caterpillars, defeating the system designed to protect the plants.

There is much to learn about the design of living things - a design so complex that we maintain it cannot be a product of chance.

Answer 5

The question is meant to be a personality test, like the question "Is the glass half empty or half full?"

The way in which you answer the question is supposed to 'determine' how you approach a problem: do you do so logically (trees make sound waves whenever they fall, so the answer must be yes) emotionally (no, since no one's around) jokingly (only when it falls on the dumb lumberjack cutting it down) etc etc etc

Since the answer could be 'true' in any number of different ways, there is no 'right' answer per se.

Answer 6

That question has stumped people for ages. The answer is yes!

Then someone always asks the dumb question, how do you know or prove it!

I've put a sound activated recorder in the woods. A huge limb fell, and my recorder - recorded it! AND no one was around. So I know that with the absence of man, when a tree falls, it makes the same sound with or without you!

Answer 7

Like many before, I would say yes it makes a sound, because the falling creates a disturbance of air particles, or basically sends sound waves; just so turns out that nobody is there to hear. However, some people argue that sound is only produced as a result of a receiver (our ears) and that sound waves do not form when there is no receptor. This sounds like hogwash to me, personally.

Answer 8

All things solid make a sound. Just because you're not there doesn't change a thing. We only think that if we can't hear it then it doesn't make a sound, hence proving that all humans are self centered, if we don't know it's happening then it must not be happening..... Such is the case that Magick be it Black or White is so controversial. Things go on with or without our knowledge, including trees breaking when no one is around.

Answer 9

Do you think they choose to make a noise? I can't believe how many times questions like this get asked. It is the falling of the tree that makes a noise, not someone being there to hear it.

Answer 10

The only reason anything makes a sound is because the movement of air causes the eardrum to vibrate. If there is no eardrum to hear it, then there can be no sound. The eardrum could be replaced by a recording device (microphone) which has a vibrating diaphragm which works pretty much the same.
Basic accoustics.

Answer 11

well they make a sound when u are there because you are in its presence and can hear (with your ears) the sound of the tree falling. if no-one is around to hear the tree fall who can say whether it would make a sound