If a Tree Falls...THE ANSWER

[LoneMateria]

Why do trees always cause these type of problems... stupid trees, someone need to turn them into toothpicks lol

It doesn't matter it still made the sound and now I have proof for it ^_^.  I don't have to be there to perceive it.  If when the tree falls sound follows it will be recorded so it does make a sound I just don't realize it until later.

[slumdog]

sorry for the bad analogy, but if you took a crap and it stunk, why would you think someone else's crap wouldn't stink?

what I am saying is that the sound was made. if a tape recorder would have been there it would have recorded it...

to me this question is like talking about a universe existing under your fingernail!...

it is philosophical, and I like it

horton hears a who comes to mind...

[McQ]

This is part of the point I made earlier. There must be a receiver of some sort that takes the pressure waves (which are the only thing created by the falling tree) and "turn them into sound" (which is what we have termed as the sense of hearing). The question is an old one, probably based on an overly simplistic view of sound, or likely was created as a simple, almost child's level logic question to help people understand that events occur even when we are not present to observe them.

[Tanker]

I do not now nor have I ever understood why this question is still asked, like it's deep or philosophical or something. It's trite and it's cliché. Unless a tree falls in a vacume. There will always be vibrations from the tree falling just because no one is within the maxmum range of these vibrations does not prevent them from ocurring. It's like asking "if your house burned down and no one was there to feel the heat did you house really burn down?" Well when you get back and your home is charred ashes it won't matterif the heat was felt you home is still gone. Just because the is no evidence left from the tree's fall of it's noisyness does not mean it wasn't noisy. If you can't trust a tree to make a sound just because you're not there to hear it you might as well take the Old Man in the shack from The Hitch Hikers Guide and not believe anything or anyone anywhere is real.

[templeboy]

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, then who cares whether it made a sound or not?

[LoneMateria]

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, then who cares whether it made a sound or not?

Someone who wants to use the argument, "but you weren't there so you couldn't have known" in a future debate.  Probably someone like Kirk Cameron or Pat Robertson since i've heard both use that argument to try and disprove something.