Thread: If a tree falls in the forest..you're gonna hate this one.

Are we all arrogant enough to believe that only a human must hear it? There must be a bear or a rabbit somewhere nearby.

Originally Posted by Hogrider

Or another way to solve this riddle is:

IF A MAN SPEAKS IN THE MIDDLE OF A FOREST AND THERE IS NO WOMAN AROUND TO HEAR HIM, IS HE STILL WRONG?

More to the point, if a woman never stops talking and her husband tunes her out, did she really say anything? If the same woman's husband says anything, did she hear him? (I'm really gonna' catch hell if my wife ever sees this).

According to Heisenberg the tree both makes a noise and doesn't make a noise and it is not until there is a witness that the wave form can collapse.

Otherwise, since in all of our observations trees make noise when they fall and that the vibrations through the air, the noise, has other effects than simply being heard, I believe, perhaps foolishly, that the tree makes noise.

[edit] I said that before.

It depends on how you define "noise".

To a physicist it makes a noise.
To a philosopher it does not.

Taking it a step further. Suppose you are having an affair. Your wife does not know. So have you or have you not been unfaitfhful to her??

By definition:
Noise = A sound

Sound = Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear

if there is no person or animal to hear the vibrations then it does not fulfill the second half of the definition and is therefore not a sound.

since it is not a sound and a noise is a sound it follows that it is not a noise.


These definitions are courtesy of Google, the all knowing entity.

Thats just one, and a rather simplified, definition of sound. More specifically its vibrations that can be transmitted through a solid, liquid or gas and these vibrations have a range in frequency that coincides with a range that the human ear can perceive, if no one is there to physically hear it, the vibrations and frequency range still exists/ occurs.

does the dog whistle that produces sound outside of the human ear frequency range not produce any sound? The dog in the room would disagree.

the point of my post was the the requirements made in the definition of "sound" at least from Google is 2 fold: generation and reception. Reception being by anything that can hear.
(Medium refers to the solid, liquid, gas, plasma that the vibrations are traveling through.) Because the dog is in the room and can receive the vibrations, it fulfills the second part in the definition of sound.

I agree with you that the vibrations exist even if no human/animal is hearing them but they do not constitute a "sound" by that definition.

Also I think my post is missing the point of the original question posed. I was just poking the bees nest with a smartypants response.

True, it all depends on the structure of the definition in the first place