• Question: If a tree falls down with nobody's ears to hear it, does it still make a noise?

    Asked by anon-257765 on 23 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Sreejita Ghosh

      Sreejita Ghosh answered on 23 Jun 2020:

      Yes it still will make a noise; it just won’t be recorded in anybody’s memory or a recording device. It’s like the electron behaving as a wave in the quantum state- just because it cannot be seen with our eyes the way we see a tree, does not mean that it is not there. Similarly, suppose you have studied a number of interesting things. But nobody quizzed you about those and you did not get the chance to share that knowledge. Just because someone else did not get to know what you know does not make you forget or not know what you know 😉 🙂

    • Photo: Laura Murgatroyd

      Laura Murgatroyd answered on 23 Jun 2020:

      A sound is a wave which is made up from vibrations of particles in the air. The way you hear a sound is that the vibrating air particles make your ear drum vibrate. Other parts of your ear work to increase the volume of the sound and produce a signal which is sent to your brain.

      Even if no one is around, the tree falling down would still produce vibrations, which creates the sound wave.

    • Photo: Emma Wilson

      Emma Wilson answered on 23 Jun 2020:

      It depends on your definition of a ‘noise’. If you consider any sound wave travelling through the air to be a noise, whether it is heard or not, then the answer is yes. If you only consider a noise to be a sound wave that enters a person’s or animal’s ear and is interpreted in the brain as a noise, then the answer is no.

    • Photo: Steve Williams

      Steve Williams answered on 23 Jun 2020:

      Yes it must do even if no ones witnesses it. You could go to a forest and leave recording equipment in various locations which you could return to, say every year. If a tree has fallen down in that time you would then hear it on the recordings.

      The one place there is no sound is in space because its a vacuum so sound has nothing to transmit it. Not that there are any trees in space.

    • Photo: Anar Yusifov

      Anar Yusifov answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      It’s easier to answer under which conditions noise wouldn’t happen.
      So, NO, if the tree is in the vacuum – so nothing to transport the sound.

      Some fun:
      If you have a smart idea, but don’t tell it to anyone, does it gets less Intelligent?… Another argument, one can “hear” not only by means of ears but also from vibrations of the earth (like snakes or worms for example)… Yet another argument, is that other trees can “hear” it fall, but that really stretching the definition of somebody… You can also play around definition of “noise”, “falls down” and “nobody” as others did.

    • Photo: Hannah Im

      Hannah Im answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      That’s like asking if someone gave you a beautiful compliment to someone else (you weren’t there to hear it), does it count? The answer is yes, absolutely! Imagine what happens what that compliment that you weren’t there to receive in person: you did something awesome which earned the admiration from someone who was so touched that she felt compelled to tell another; both the person retelling the story and the one hearing about it are further inspired to do something to the best of their abilities to pay it forward; the cycle repeats, propagates, and perpetuates. One small act of kindness can do that. One small act can change the world, and you may never know that it traces back to you!

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