If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to here it,does it make a sound at all?

Question

A very old question that has been around for centuries.Try your best to answer it.

Answer 1

idk it is a neverendin ? that will never be answered

Answer 2

Sound is produced when there is a disturbance in the air creating waves. the tree falling would create waves of sound.

Another way of looking at it: Did it fall? If someone walked by, they would observe that the tree has fallen. Then, logically, one can infer that it did make sound, because years of historical testing had proven that falling trees make sound.

Answer 3

Yes, it still makes a sounds when no one is around to here it.

Answer 4

Yes, It does make a noise. For example, If you go outside and your phone is inside and somebody calls you- you get a missed call. Your phone still rings, doesn't it? By the way the phone was not on silent OR vibrate. It was on full volume. If you were wondering.

Answer 5

Of course it does.

Answer 6

Of course, the laws of nature just don't stop working because humans aren't around.

Answer 7

Just because nobody is around does not mean that it does not make a sound. It does! Its just that nobody would be there to witness it happening. If you placed a sound recorder in the middle of a forest, i am pretty confident that if a nearby tree fell over a sound would be recorded!!!

Answer 8

People really need to take a look at the physics of sound in order understand how it actually works.

ZPatel -- and the ringing cell phone when no one is around to hear it -- The cell phone, in and of itself, does not make a sound if there is no one around to hear it.  What it does do is set air molecules in motion that creates pressure waves.  Now, if there's someone nearby that can detect these pressure waves, they will be translated by the eardrum into neuro-electrical signals that the brain "interprets" as a frequency of sound, based upon the mechanical nature of the sound pressure waves generated by the phone.

O-man90 is simply using his tape recorder in the middle of the forest as a "substititue" for the human eardrum. That's what a microphone does, it pick up pressure waves occurring at the rate (frequency) of sound, then converts pressure waves (mechanical waves) into electrical waves (energy) that gets recorded onto tape as a frequency of sound.

Dave S got it right.

When a tree falls in the forest, no sound is made. Only disturbances of air molecules creating pressure waves that spread out in all directions from the point where the tree fell. If there is no one around with a healthy ear to detect the pressure waves and convert them from mechanical energy into bio-electrical energy that the brain senses as "sound," nothing is heard.

It is the exact reason why many deaf people don't hear sound-- nothing to convert pressure (mechanical) waves into electrical sound frequency waves.

Answer 9

It doesn't make 'sound'. It makes sound waves.  The ear transforms the vibrations from sound waves into sound so you can hear it.  So it doesn't make sound, but it makes sound waves.

Answer 10

yes ....it makes a sound even if nobody hears it