If a sound isn't heard is it a sound at all?

Question

...if a leaf or a rock fell in the forest would there be a sound if no one was there to hear it? Is everything a mute outside of any hearing range?

Answer 1

Sound is just the way our ears interpret 'sound waves' which are just vibrations in the air. So the waves still exist whether or not there are ears to interpret them as noise. Think about it this way, a deaf person can dance to music if it is up loud enough because they can feel the vibration in their body.

Answer 2

All mass interactions produce a disturbance of the mediun they are in.The disturbance can be one in the disturbance of the medium of space ,called gravity wave.
On earth air is a medium for sound ,solid materials also as well as liquids.
If a Big tree branch falls on the ground it make a big noise.I know because iI have heard it before.
If the branch falls and I am not there to hear it ,I would not know that a branch in the forest fell.(this is the argument about Schoedinger's cat).
However if the next day I see that there is a big branch on the ground ,I would know that it must have made a big noise.The reason is that I did have an experience of what noise a falling branch makes.
Sound travels long distances but does attenuate rapidly with the distance. An elephant can hear an earth quake from thousand of miles away. He uses his ears as well as his trunck which he presses against the ground.

Answer 3

well sound depends on frequency (how high or low pitched something is) and amplitude (how loud or soft something is). if a leaf fell in the forest it would make a sound but the amplitude is so low that we can't hear it. also, you have ultra-sonic sound waves which have a frequency that's too short for humans to hear but maybe a dog can hear. and then there are sub-sonic sound waves. an example would be the earth's plates grinding against eachother. the only time you wouldn't hear anything is if you were in a vacuum, like space. if you shot a gun next to your ear in space you wouldnt hear it.

Answer 4

Yes, sound is caused by waves passing through the air, whether or not anyone is there to hear it. Also, our ears can only hear sound waves of a narrow frequency range. Other animals can hear sound waves of greater frequency (higher pitch) than us (eg, dogs); or of much lower frequency (lower pitch) than us (eg whales).
It follows that if a leaf (or a stone) dropped in a vacuum, there would be no sound, because there would be no air for the sound waves to pass through ("In space, no one can hear you scream").

Answer 5

sound isnt only related to hearing.Sound is a wave.Its the vibrations in an object that produces these sound waves.so,obviously sound is produced.it dsnt matter whthr thr is a listener or not

Answer 6

In physics, where sound is a vibration in the air, yes.
In philosophy, where sound may be an experience
or something else....knock youself out.

Answer 7

If sound isn't heard, it's a potato.