If a tree falls

If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?*note to admin*
I don't care where you put this one.
I mean this as a legitimate question.

I should have also added in, whether someone is there to hear it or not.

Close your eyes, and imagine a song. Can you hear it?

This assumes he is wrong in the first place.
Lets stick to the tree first.

I once was thinking that way, but I have changed my mind about that thought for a couple of reasons.1. Frequencies above about 20,000hz cannot be heard by the human ear, but it is still sound. I am sure there are frequencies that no creature can hear, but it would still be sound. It is sound because it travels at the speed of sound and has frequency, wavelength, amplitude, and velocity.
2. The speed of sound in our atmosphere varys on pressure, but there is always a sound barrier present. That barrier cannot be heard, but describes the speed of which SOUND travels. How can it be sound if no-one is hearing it? How can the barrier exist then?
3. Radio waves exist wether we "hear" them or not. Nobody can hear you scream, but there is sound. Anytime to objects collide or vibrate, there is sound.This message has been edited by riVeRraT, 12-29-2005 07:10 PM

This question has nothing to do with the OP It is only a question to determine if I understand science as we know it.Having said that, I would say yes, and no. Until we find a better answer.

That is how we process sounds that travel through our surroundings.What is the difference if we generate the sound from a guitar, or from the front part of our brain. We are still hearing it in our heads?BTW, that exploding head is just gross

You missed my point.
I understand that there are 2 different paths, but they both end up in the same place, your conscience.

Because it is interesting. It also brought me to the next question, then I have one after that.

Well it finally happened. I think we agree on this one rhain.I would like it if you addresses my next question, about hearing sound in your head, or imagining it.

This is what I am trying to find out.I don't know if my brain is actually constructing the sound, or if it is making the sound that only I can hear.I would think that my brain is reconstructing the sound, and bringing it to the conscience part of my brain, then I am preceiving it.If it is happening that way, then my next question is, does that sound exist? And if it does, does it exist without the sound waves?So far we have described sound, as actualy waves of energy that have amplitude, frequency, and modulation. These waves can only exist if they have something to react with.Some people have said that it is not a sound unless something is there to hear it, but I disagree, sound can exist whether a person hears it or not. The reason being what ever is making the sound, which I think to a bare mininum has to be at least 2 objects interacting with each other, at the very least those 2 objects would experience the sound waves, so the sound does exist.But in our brains, we can clearly preceive sound without sound waves?Oh BTW, rhain is incorrect in saying that there is no sound in space, because if there is no sound in space, then there is no sound on earth either.The correct statment would be that sound waves cannot travel in an absolute vacum.Space is not an absolute vacum, and sound can travel in space. Not only that but if 2 objects collide in space, sound waves will reverberate through them, hence making sound in space.

Of course it made a sound. Did I have a chance to hear it, no.Hearing sound, and sound existing are 2 different subjects. I think you are creating a strawman? (sorry I never used that term before) Doesn't matter if I can hear them or not. In what we preceive to be reality, those sound waves exist, so it is a sound.Try this experiment. All glass has a resonating frequency. If you play the right note loud enough, the glass will break. If you are not around to hear it, or see it break when that note was played, was there a sound? So then by your own logic, sound exists whether you hear it or not.Your trying to take your own personal interaction with sound, to describe whether it exists or not. But what about everything else that had interaction with that sound, including the objects that made the sound. They heard it and felt it.

I guess in other words, we just really don't know yet. We are only starting to know.But it clearly defines the difference bewteen hearing a sound, and an actual sound wave.I wonder if you could ever imagine a sound, without ever actually hearing one before.

In other words, I am right. I was clarifying that there is sound in space within the objects that would make them.If there are no objects to start the sound, then of course there is no sound, that would be true here on earth as well, or within any medium.When you say to people, there is no sound in space, It is usually assumed that there is an object making a noise, and that noise cannot go anywhere. Especially since there are objects in space, lots of them.That is why it is more acurate to say there is no sound in a vacum. Which ones?

As was stated and explained earlier in the thread, yes it does make a sound.As I explained, you would not hear it.I will add this though, you will not hear it, unless you are touching it.The sound waves created when the cymbol is hit will travel from the point of impact on the object to the ends of the object, then stop.
So there is sound.You know what I wonder is if when the sound waves reach the end of the object, if the energy used to create the sound wave continues in some other fashion off the object.