If a tree falls in the forest & no one is around-does it make a sound?

Question:lol

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: lol

I'll go with Walt Kelly's answer; if it falls on ME, I'LL make a sound!

It doesn't matter. Whether it stands or falls is irrelevant to my need to conquer my incorrect view on some things. LOL

_()_

Sound is mechanical energy. Whether someone is there to perceive it through hearing or not, the physical mechanical energy still takes place.

So yes.

Peace

Sure it does, since sound is the presence of vibrations in the auditory range. It doesn't have to be sensed to exist. To say no would be the same as to say that stars do not exist during daylight hours or when there is cloud cover, simply because they are not sensed.

Did you know my great, great, great, great, grandmother?

Because this question has been around at least that long.

If there's no one there, no one would even know it fell, so who cares?

Sure, just because a human doesn't hear the sound, doesn't mean there is no sound. I'll bet a lot of forest denizens hear it fall.

If:
~"No one" includes anything and everything that can hear,
~"Sound" is the translation of vibrations in the air by the brain,

Then, no. It doesn't. The vibrations caused by the falling tree are never translated into sound if no one is around to hear it.

As you can see by some of the previous answerers, It depends on your definition of sound. Are you a scientist or a philosopher?

By the nature of the question and the category, I must assume you are asking the question from a philosophical perspective and that you are making the assumption that sound is something that is heard. My answer then is no - if no one hears a sound and a sound is something that is heard then a sound has not been made.

Everything that vibrates the air creates the potential for sound, regardless of what conscious being is there to perceive it in the first place. If there is nothing to perceive it occurring, then it could not exist. Sound is a subjective interaction with matter. All sound is, is vibrations through a medium, without humans to perceive it, those vibrations that we call sound, when the tree fell, would make vibrations, but "sound" as we know it, couldn't exist, since no conscious being was there to interpret those vibrations.

What does "no one" mean? No human? No mammal? No insect or animal life of any kind? It is difficult to imagine a "forest" entirely empty of any creature with a capacity to hear.

And what about the trees themselves? Might they not sense the fall of one of their companions? Is that "hearing"?

Yes - it doesn't need "us" to verify its existence. If birds or animals could talk with you, they would tell you about the loud sound it made and how it rocked the earth, too!

Sound exist yes that's physics. Music and Language No, Both Music and Language require a Subject to interpret them.

Sound never looks around who is around. Sound is sound irrespective of who is listening.

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.

Love and blessings Don