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"Something To Ponder Over..."

If a tree falls, does it make a noise if no one is there to hear it?


I expect you've heard it before, but I spent most of my German lesson thinking over this. :D

Ah, but Bonus, what are db's actually messuring? Isn't it the amplitude of the sound waves produced???

Hence a db meter would give a reading...

Getting back to the original point, I think many have misinterpreted the question. Whether sound waves constitute as sound or not is irrelevant... the question is whether these sound waves are produced at all? Mayeb when we turn our backs everything behin us ceases to exist, and it's that kind of thing the question is getting at... it's all about the perseption of reality.

Sonic



Bonus wrote:
> The sound will exist although the loudness etc will not be defined as the db
> scale begins at the threshold of human hearing (i.e. 0db = the quitetest sound
> that a human can percieve.

A quick way to look at it is, the tree will make a
> sound but it will be classed as 0db if there isn't a person around to hear
> it.

If you were standing right next to it, you may hear it as 100db, and the
> further away you get, the quieter it becomes, reducing in db, until you cannot
> hear it anymore........

The sound will exist although the loudness etc will not be defined as the db scale begins at the threshold of human hearing (i.e. 0db = the quitetest sound that a human can percieve.

A quick way to look at it is, the tree will make a sound but it will be classed as 0db if there isn't a person around to hear it.

If you were standing right next to it, you may hear it as 100db, and the further away you get, the quieter it becomes, reducing in db, until you cannot hear it anymore........

AliBoy wrote:
> Sound is caused by vibrations in the air, these will still be produced even if
> nobody is around to hear them. Also some animals are deaf yet they use the
> vibrations to make sense of situations so they may not hear it but they will
> feel it. So answer is yes.

Sound is sound waves. What deaf animals feel is a different type of wave. So answer is no - needs flapping membrane.

It can be heard by all the little animals so yes.

I learnt something interesting today. Some animals can see infra-red. I thought the Predator was the only thing capable of that with it's funny vision thingy.

Sound is caused by vibrations in the air, these will still be produced even if nobody is around to hear them. Also some animals are deaf yet they use the vibrations to make sense of situations so they may not hear it but they will feel it. So answer is yes.

Sound waves exist, but they can't be heard until they vibrate in your ear.

Grandprix wrote:
> Sound can't exist without someone to hear it. Simple.

define 'exist'

Sound can't exist without someone to hear it. Simple.

monkey_man wrote:
> It still creates sound waves when it falls though,
> just nothing's there to interprete them.

Then it making a sound then huh? :)

I think the real question is, 'if a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound?'