Do the trees make a sound when they fall and nobody is there to listen em ?

Question

Do the trees make a sound when they fall and nobody is there to listen em ?

Answer 1

yes it makes a sound, just no one hears or cares to recognize the sound.

Answer 2

Sound is a vibration carried by the airwaves. The interpretation of sound inside your ear and your brain is a different story. Presumably the possum that the tree falls on might hear the crash, just a bit too late.

Answer 3

The answer has been stated above multiple times: yes.

The distinction which needs to be made here is between a noise being audible (i.e. able to be heard) and actually being heard by an individual. The noise, of its nature, would be heard if someone was present (the question implies this). Therefore, since the sound does not change in itself (i.e. being heard does not make the sound waves a different sort of thing), there would be a sound even if no one were present to hear it.

Answer 4

You mean can anything possibly exist without perception.

Yes. There is definitely a sound that is made because we know that when trees fall to the ground, they make a tremor that moves the air around it, producing a sound.

Whether or not you believe that that sound exists is the root of all epistemological questions.

I believe in a consistent universe. I do not believe that it changes its laws based on perception. Therefore, I believe that sound exists.

Answer 5

Reasoning: If a tree falls in the woods and an animal hears it , yes, it makes a sound. The sound will scare the animal and if you are standing on the edge of that timberland you may see the animal run out of the woods and therefore; encounter you. There will always be a life form nearby when a tree falls. Be it human, insect, or animal...it affects us all the same....FLIGHT! And if you are a Christian; you can be assured that God heard it!

Answer 6

Yes.

Or, to offer a more complete explanation, since "tree", "forest" and "fall" are words ascribed by man to things that would otherwise be nameless without his existence, it becomes equally reasonable to say that we can ascribe the word "sound" to reverberations of the air caused by a "falling" "tree" regardless of anyone's presence.

By the way, I think it is very important to discount the, now completely discredited, school of philosophy which used to argue that as the tree falls it actually goes: "Aaaarrrrrggghh!!!!!".

Answer 7

Yes. Because the existence of a noise is not dependent on someone's ability to hear it. So, regardless of the fact whether it is heard or not, the (potential) sound exists. I say potential because our idea of "sound" is the effect of the inner workings of our ears; however, different anatomy would lead to a different interpretation of that "potential sound" i.e. the sound waves.

All of the different perceptions of sound are caused by the same potential i.e. sound waves. The potential exists regardless of the fact whether someone is there to interpret it.

I am, of course, using "sound" and "noise" interchangeably.

Answer 8

This is a philosophy question, people, and most of you answer the question too literally!

I would say that the answer according to science is "No".

Science requires that any theory or idea can be tested by experiment. Any experiment requires an observer, a person or recording device to detect the results of the experiment.

If there is no observer, then we can't assume that there is anything there to observe.

Answer 9

Of course they do. Sound is merely a vibration. There is no mystical-magical switch that clicks on just because living beings with hearing are around. Humans are not so special that the world ceases to exist without them. How specious!

Answer 10

no, because all knowledge we know is perceived from our surroundings. If no one can perceive the sound, then it might as well not happen. Animals do not count if they cannot recognize that the sound is the sound of a tree falling, which I would not expect them to know. all we know of science comes from what we observe. If it can't be observed, science does not apply, so you cannot say that it does indeed make a sound without a doubt.

Answer 11

Yes, they make a sound when people are there to listen to them also. This little question was made up before TV, everyone knows that answer, everyone always has. They were just really bored.