18 thoughts on “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

  1. I thought that sound was a vibration of air regardless if anyone hears it… This is like saying that the tree doesn’t exist at all unless someone is looking at it.

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  2. If the Pope $hits in the woods, and there is nobody around, does it smell? And if nobody is around, does he still have to wipe?

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  3. Even if there are no humans around to register the vibrations as sound, there is bound to be another living thing to hear it. Even if for whatever reason the whole vicinity is barren of animal/insect life, the vibrations still exist and are registered in the existences of all other organic matter such as plants, and in the particles in the air through which that sound has traveled. So, duh, it makes a sound.

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  4. Ken–the air would be moving from the tree falling, but unless there is someone/something there to hear that movement, no sound is made.

    At least I think that is the reasoning from what I remember. Sort of like communication: for communication, you need a source, a medium, and a destination.

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  5. Why human beings are so ego-centered and vain? Let´s try to be like the roses: they offer their perfume even if there is no one to smell it…hehehe

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  6. Human-centric and egotistical answer, no different than saying the universe revolves around the Earth.

    A tree falls and the crash makes waves in the air.
    No different whether the human is there or not.
    Sound is sound is sound, get over it.

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  7. The person who wrote the quetiion is meant it as that there is no one. He is refering no one as the animals too and humans. The anwser is that no it does not make a sound. For sound to be created there has to be a source(the tree),a medium(the air) and a reciver. Take any of those parts out sound cannot be made. Think about this logically with no one to hear it how do you know that the tree even makes a sound. No one is around to observe it. Without anyone to observe it the tree will not technically exist as no one knows that it exists.

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