If a tree falls in the forest and their is no one their to hear it does it make a sound?

Question

This is a Zen proverb it is used to clear the mind and meditate. The definition or the existance of sound waves, vibrations or ways of measuring sound

is not under question here

Answer 1

if nobody sees it...does it look like a tree?

Answer 2

Can something exist without being perceived? If no one is around to see, hear, touch or smell the tree, how could its existence occur?
Philosophers could debate the riddle of the tree for centuries and there'd be no definitive answer.
If..IF...you believe there is a tree, whether you can see it or not, then yes, it would make a sound. If, however, you believe that in order for something to exist it must be observed, then no, it makes no sound because it is not there.
As for me, yes, it makes a sound.

Answer 3

Yes. Suppose there is a tape recorder left on nearby. If no-one ever examines that tape, the recording would still be on it. The reason it must make a sound is that consciousness is a property of matter, so there is always an observer. If there is a God, it would also be heard, and it might then be that it is impossible for there to be no-one there.

Answer 4

This depends on how one wants to define sound. There are many definitions. If it is defines as auditory only there would ne no sound. But auditory connotes that there is some form of transformation. Sounds have the connotation that something is transmitted. In the case of sound I would say it is wavelengths which is measured by hertz. If we can accept this as a transformation of wavelengths then there is sound. If sound is defined as completely auditory there would be no sound but then we would have to defined auditory and that could back to wavelength and hertz.

Answer 5

Yes, I left my camcorder in the woods and went home. The next year I went back to the same area and found it had been left on. I watched the footage and their was a huge wind storm that toppled trees and in it there was several huge cracks and trees falling.

Answer 6

Sound is a perceptual interpretation of vibration. We call this interpretation hearing.

If there is no one there to hear it, there is no sound. There is just a vibration that would have been interpreted as sound had there been any one there to do that.

Many would say that if there is no one there to observe it, then there is no forest.
This is more easily understandable if one considers the actual scale of the components of an atom. If one takes into account the fact that the neutrons, protons and electrons of an atom actually have huge spaces between them it becomes clear that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are made up of 99+ percent empty space.

This alone does not seem too important till you add the idea that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are more of a loose conglomeration that share a similar attraction but never really touch each other.

At first glance this does not really seem relevant, but closer analysis reveals that this adds a tremendous amount of empty space to solid objects that are already made up of atoms that are 99 percent space. When so-called solid objects are seen in this light it becomes apparent that they can in no way be the seemingly solid objects they appear to be.

We ourselves are not exceptions to this phenomenon.

These seemingly solid objects are more like ghostly images that we interpret as solid objects based on our perceptual conclusions.

From this we must conclude that Perception is some sort of a trick that helps us to take these ghostly images and turn them into a world we can associate and interact with. This clever device seems to be a creation of our intellect that enables us to interact with each other in what appears to be a three dimensional reality.

I hope that helps to answered your question.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 7

In my understanding of quantum theory, if there is no observer (person, camcorder, tape recorder, God, etc.), the tree both DOES and DOES NOT make a sound. It has both values until someone/thing, simply by the act of observation itself, assigns it one value or the other, which in the case of falling trees, must necessarily be DOES make a sound.

So with no observer, yes and no.

Answer 8

It still makes a sound. Only the sound is not experienced...the falling of the tree has STILL been experienced...by the tree.

Answer 9

yes, plus in a forest i dont think there would ever be "no one" unless you limit that to only humans, there are always all kinds of critters about , with hearing

Answer 10

It would be pretty arrogant to think that the laws of physics cease to exist if we aren't there to witness.