if a tree falls in a forest and no 1 is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Answer 1

no

Answer 2

Another way of asking that question is this: The word "if" is interesting when it comes to Philosophy. 1) Is there really a tree? Is there reall a forest? Did the tree really fall?

What if I wanted to be absolutely sure, then I asked the question this way: If there is a forest and if there is a tree in the forest and if it fell and if no one was in the forest and if no one outside the forest heard a sound, was there a sound? Is it possible for a tree to fall without making a sound? If I was in the forest and saw a tree fall and heard a noise like a violin playing, did the falling tree make the violin playing noise? If I was in the forest and saw a tree fall and heard a crashing sound, did the tree make the crashing sound? If I was in the forest and saw a tree fall in an avalance what made the giant sound, the tree falling? the avalanche? Or did I hear just one giant sound? Or did i hear two distinct sounds at the same time?

Things do not exist independently of each other, where does one stop and the other begin? If you want to prove either existence or causality everything exists in a myriad of contexts some you are of aware of, some you are not.

First Hume, Hume proved that you could never absolutely prove causality. You are assuming the tree made the sound even if you see the tree fall. You don't know if the sound was really caused by a boulder falling two miles away exactly the same time. Second Plato: Never assume you know, your mind can be fooled. Third Berkely, "Cork trees do not exist to make stoppers for our bottles." Fouth Aristotle, this is a paraphrase to keep to the tree in the question. If it's possible for a tree to exist without you seeing it, then why would you assume that it may not be possible for there to be a sound without you hearing it?

Once you move a question outside yourself all questions become meaningless. But if you sit and listen and feel and smell for a long time and you ask questions about what your mind apprehends, then all questions have meaning. Your questions about WHAT YOUR MIND APPREHENDS acquire more and more context the longer and the more you let your senses feed your mind data.

Once you apprehend it's possible to cut down a tree, saw it into boards. You apprehend that it is possible to melt rocks and get a hard subtance from them you call iron. You apprehend that you can shape this iron into nails. You apprehend that you can hit the nails and they will go through boards and hold them togethor. You apprehend that pine trees emit sap that is water proof and you can cover both boards and the nails so they are both water proof, eventually when you apprehend enough you know how to make a ship that will travel over the sea and take you to new worlds.

It's knowing that your knowledge is not absolute and you don't make assumptions that you sit and watch in order to apprehend enough things to create a ship or a giant cathedral.

It's not by asking whether the tree makes a sound that leads you anywhere, it's by assuming nothing and sitting watching, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, keep on feeding your mind more and more data and than by knowing that these things are just and always will be just information and will never be knowlege, then your mind you can put all the information you have gathered togethor in a million different ways or contexts that allow you to create a ship and discover new worlds.

If you know you can never know the "truth" about something, but there is only the information that exists in you mind; it is then your mind can create new contexts and through these new contexts you then can create something that didn't exist before whether it's a nail or a rocketship that will take you to the moon.

Answer 3

If the tree falls then all the normal principles of physics (like gravity) must still apply even though no one's around. And we know from physics that the falling tree will make sound waves. It shouldn't matter whether anyone is around to hear the sound.

The only arguments for why it doesn't make a sound are:
1) A sound does not exist unless someone hears it or records it; or
2) We can't be sure of anything we can't verify with our own senses; or
3) The normal laws of physics are not consistent, or depend on the presence of an observer to operate consistently.

Of these, (1) is the weakest. It's just a bad definition of "sound." If the tree fell and a deaf person was around, did it still not make a sound? If a person with good hearing was there along with the deaf guy, did the tree make half a sound?

Argument (2) raises interesting questions about how to define knowledge. How do we know that we know something? Is there even a tree around at all? Does anything at all exist outside our own sensory impressions? But in fact we believe lots of things that we're not able to verify through direct perception. I believe that everything is made up of atoms, which are made up of even smaller subatomic particles, but no one has ever seen one. Their existence has to be inferred from other observations. The falling tree's sound can be inferred in exactly the same way.

Argument (3) is also interesting since some physicists have argued that the behavior of small particles really is changed when an observer is present or not. It's very mysterious. But no one has ever shown that an observer needs to be present for a falling tree to create sound waves.

Answer 4

Maybe back in the good old days, we would say no, it didnt' make a sound cause no one heard it fall. But, I don't think there is an area in the United States that is private enough now, that no one would be around. Either camera's will capture it, or the Government and all thier nosy equipment, they may not comment on it, but I bet they know, and hear everything now. So, yeah, it makes a sound.

Answer 5

Yes it makes a sound. Just because you don't have a clock does not mean time stops. Just because you haven't seen your friend in ten years does not mean they did not get older.

If you're in a forest and you hear a tree fall, the only reason you heard it is because it makes a sound--whether you're there or not.

Answer 6

of direction it makes a sound! there'll constantly be sound, whether it does no longer attain the ears. If a individual speaks, and no one heard it, that doesnt mean no sound got here out of that's mouth! Or if a dogs whistle is blown, and no people heard it, that does no longer mean that the sound did no longer exist. It purely skill that people can no longer pay attention as extreme frequency sound waves as others. in case you could no longer pay attention the television, that does no longer mean it isnt making sound. you could no longer make certain sounds by skill of no remember if somebody is around to pay attention. throughout usa, tvs are being left on without one around for example. purely because of the fact which you're no longer interior the room and cant pay attention it, does no longer mean that sound isn't emitting from it. sound vibrates off of the problem interior the solids, beverages, and gasses till that's going to become too liable to proceed. purely because of the fact it did no longer attain an ear does no longer mean that it replaced into in no way made.

Answer 7

Yes it makes a sound, if a sound wave frequency was there but no one else to hear it, it would pick up a sound wave. If a book fell of the shelf in your home but no one was there,did it make a sound when it hit the ground of course it did. So yes the tree does still make a sound.

Answer 8

See, when people ask this question they always discount the fact that animals and such that live in the forest also have ears. Lol. And to say no to this is being very self absorbed, I think. There is a helluva lot more to this world than just humans!!

Answer 9

Yes, b/c its a law of nature. When the tree fall it will make a noise no matter who's there to hear it or not.

Answer 10

Yes, the sound ways are there and although I am deaf and do not hear the sound other animals and people do hear it. It is because no receptor is present that the sound does not resonate. It is a chicken and egg question and is in world of physics.

Answer 11

What do you mean by "1" - no 1 is around to hear it? 1 is a number - how's it connected to hearing?