if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it does it make a sound/?

Question

hearing think bout it

Answer 1

when a tree falls and you are around to hear it, yes it makes a sound, So if a tree falls and your not around commen sence tells you that it will make a sound

Answer 2

I will go with the disimilarity between sensation and reality
arguement and say yes it does make a sound.

The tree falls, through the air and to the ground, energy is transferred to the surroundings and one of these transfers causes the propagation of sound waves - a camcorder in the forest can prove that this happens in reality, again nobody is really there.

The act of hearing is a sensation - the perception of sound is absent in this case - based on our sense of hearing the tree does not make a sound, but in reality it does.

Sound does not sound like anything, hence there is a difference between perception (limited) and reality (unlimited).

Answer 3

This is an interesting question which has been posed in many different forms.

Take Einstein for instance, in one of his "Special theories of relativity" which has yet to be proven or disproven he theorises (simplified) that the universe is made up of energy waves, it is only our interaction with these waves that give us the sensations of sight, sound, touch and of being. In his question he looks at a cat sealed in a box with a piece of plutonium with a decaying shell, the shell will decay in such a way that:
1- The cat dies.
2- The cat lives.
The question he asks, Is the cat dead or alive?

He theorises that until we actually look in the box to see that the cat is either dead or alive, there is no cat. Until we interact with the waves producing the being of the cat, the cat simply does not exist.

So to use this theory as a sounding board, i would say no, as only a direct observation/interaction of the event will produce the sound.

Answer 4

You do not need to have been there to know that the tree has fallen because when you arrive you will observe that it did. However, if you had indeed been there when it was coming down you would have heard the sound. It would have been saying , " I'm falling and I can't get up ! "

Answer 5

Ok, ask it this way...

If you were in the forrest alone and you screamed, do you actually make a sound since no one is around to hear you?

Yes, the tree still makes a sound.

Answer 6

Adam S has the best answer so far, but you have to realize that when the tree falls, the act of its falling produces the vibrations and frequency of sound, but, the vibrations can not be interpreted as sound unless there is something there to capture that vibration and turn it into what you call sound. So, to answer your question, the vibrations are there to produce the sound, but if there is no one there to interpret the sound, there is no sound.

Answer 7

Google it. I think it's just how you look at it, really. There are yes's and no's, but I think it's what YOU think. You see, things do make sounds, whether anybody is around to hear them or not. But somebody might say there was no sound because they weren't there. But actually, um, haha, I dont know!

Answer 8

One of those fun questions where you can look at it philosophically and scientifically. Scientifically, yes, it makes a sound. Sound waves are created as it crashes to the ground. But, philosophically, does it matter if no one hears it? Fun question.

Answer 9

yes. if I fell in a forest would the trees hear it?

Answer 10

Of course, it makes a sound;if you put recorder over there; then you can hear it later on;