If: ?

[The Adfeng]

If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it REALLY make a sound? Because a sound is something that you hear, and no one heard it. And, this is one of those pessimistic or optimistic questions, per say: Is the glass half full or half empty. I see it as this: If I'm having a good day, it's half full. If it's a bad day, half empty.

[GardDog]

Sound is a vibration transmitted through a solid, a liquid or a gas, so there for a sound is made whether a person hears it or not.

[Cronus]

Sound is just vibrations threw they air, high pitched sounds we cannot hear but they are there.

[leethal]

As said before.

But that question is more of the sort "does it matter if no one knows it happened".

[GardDog]

Yes it matters, people don't need to be around for something to matter, its arrogant to think that a person needs to be around for something to matter.

[The Adfeng]

But, still, I don't think it did. If we look at it scientifically, but, there's a possibility that the tree never mad a sound or noise because it could be a special tree, a tree no one has heard of.

[stolide]

You could apply that to all sorts of things.

*shoots man five times in head* You know? I don't really think he's dead he's a special kind of man no ones heard of. Theres a possibilty that he could be so he must. Right?

[leethal]

nah, the thing is, if no one is there to listen to it, how do you know it makes a sound? Eish, it can relate to people... I'm scared. If no one ever listens to you, do you make a sound? it's deeper than it looks. think about it.

[GardDog]

We know it makes a sound because we know when it falls it will make sound waves witch are there regardless if a person is there or not. there Are no magical tree faeries that come out when we are not watching and take away all sound in the forest, is it that hard to understand?

[Apollo]

"If a man talks where a woman is not around to hear him, is he still wrong?"


^^ From a T-Shirt I saw.....sorry.



LOL

[Darin Rosewood]

It makes a sound (a vibration passing through a given medium) but not a noise (a sound audible to animals, particularly humans). If nothing can hear it, it can't be heard, therfore it's not a noise. And the half-empty/half-full thing is more of a terminology issue rather than whether you're an optomist or a pessimist. I say half-full because think it sounds better.

[Brilenus]

Its neither half full, nor half empty. The cup is twice as big as it needs to be. - Engineer's way of seeing things.

I agree with Darin on the sound/noise though.

[psidan]

Ah.. I wondered when this would pop up.

If no one is there to hear the sound how do you know it's there and how do you know it makes sound waves if no one is there to observe it? The no one being no particle, tree, animal, nothing to observe it.

I can tell how this could grow into a very heated debate.

[stolide]

darin said:

It makes a sound (a vibration passing through a given medium) but not a noise (a sound audible to animals, particularly humans). If nothing can hear it, it can't be heard, therfore it's not a noise. And the half-empty/half-full thing is more of a terminology issue rather than whether you're an optomist or a pessimist. I say half-full because think it sounds better.

Just beacuse no one was around to hear it, doesn't mean no one would have been able to hear it if the were there.(audibility)

[psidan]

Ah but how do we know it even makes a sound? What tells us that the particular tree in those conditions with nothing around to here it makes a sound. The only proof we have that it does is other trees make a sound. But, we only know or tried that when we were around to here it or some instrument.