If a tree falls in the middle of a forest...?

Question

Here is a kinda stupid question that my friend asked me one day. She was soo eager to know the answer and i had no idea ( i did ) so im asking this on yahoo! Here it is: If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?

Answer 1

yes.

sound is the vibration, not the reception in one's ear.

Answer 2

A falling tree does not make a sound; it vibrates and our ears are attuned to translate these vibrations into a sound; thus, where there are no ears there is no sound! Similarly, deaf person hears no sound, and we don't receive radio and T.V. broadcasts without an attuned receiver.
This is not stupid, this is very deep question coming from Zen Buddhism teachings. Thank you for asking.

Answer 3

"Sound is a disturbance of mechanical energy that propagates through matter as a wave. Sound is characterized by the properties of waves, which are frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, and speed.

Humans perceive sound by the sense of hearing. By sound, we commonly mean the vibrations that travel through air and are audible to people. However, scientists and engineers use a wider definition of sound that includes low and high frequency vibrations in air that cannot be heard by humans, and vibrations that travel through all forms of matter, gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas.

The matter that supports the sound is called the medium. Sound propagates as waves of alternating pressure, causing local regions of compression and rarefaction. Particles in the medium are displaced by the wave and oscillate. The scientific study of the absorption and reflection of sound waves is called acoustics."


A sound can be recorded for example even if the person is not there to hear it...

Answer 4

The question is a Zen Buddhist Koan. Koans are nonsensical questions, which guide the asked to satori (enlightenment). Other examples of Koans are "What is the sound of one hand clapping." (the answer is not whoosh) and "what is the taste of an empty bowl of rice (the answer is not smooth). There are many more examples of Koans out there, do some research and enjoy!

Answer 5

Yes

Answer 6

Yes there will be the sound of the other trees laughing at him for tripping over and falling like a dumb ***.

Answer 7

yes, but if you want to find out for yourself setup a mechanism on a timer to knock over a rotten or dead tree and have a video camera there to record it, if it makes a sound with you there why would it be diff. without you there the trees arent putting on a show for us, you know.

Answer 8

yes jus because no one is there to hear it it will still make a sound jus like if a pencil falls of the desk and no one was there but a tape recorder and u listened to the tape u would hear a pencil falling

Answer 9

Hi,
The best why to answer this is:

If no-one is there to see the tree fall, then no-one would be there to hear it. Therefore the tree has not fallen yet.

Answer 10

It is indeed not a stupid question, it is as the other respondents have noted, a philosophical querie which doesn't really have a "right" answer.. intended to cause one to think and analyze their selves, biases, etc.
I think yes and no. What do YOU think?

Answer 11

yes! so many of my friends disagree. its so stupid. sounds happen, we are jsut there to receive them. its not like sound particles recognize people and decided to make a noise. there are still all the same particles in the air and everything and it still makes noise all the same, just with nobody there. there is technically by far no way to prove it but i say its crazy to believe it doesnt make a noise.