If a tree falls in the middle of the woods and no one is there to here it, does it make a sound?

if it doesn't hurt anything I care about should I worry about it?

It makes a sound, there's just no one around to hear it.



I actually thought for some reason this was a metaphorical reference to the way attorney general Eric Holder was voted in contempt of Congress for with-holding Justice dept records. Despite a congressional subpoena regarding the internal communications in the Justice Dept regarding the "Fast and Furious" arms knowingly given to Mexican drug cartels. That has gotten a U.S. Border Patrol guard and hundreds of Mexican civilians killed. Which has gone virtually unreported by the mainstream liberal media.

That is one big frigging tree slamming into the ground, with no one there to hear it in the media.

You know damn well that if it was a Republican-appointed attorney general in the same --or even less-- notorious situation, the same liberal media would be reporting it on page one every day for weeks. But in a liberal-Democrat forest, it doesn't make the slightest sound.

Why does everything have to do with politics?

Chuck Norris hears it. Chuck Norris hears everything

It's completely answerable. Of course it makes a sound. Just because nobody's there to hear it, doesn't mean the sound's not there.

I was going to comment, but after having read some of the in depth replies, I will just go with yes and what everybody else said below. lol

Great Question by the way.

I've witnessed trees being cut down and they make an awful sound...it's almost akin to a human moan and that noise combined with the crashing and splintering when they fall would be apparent even if there wasn't a soul around.
I have heard a similar saying which goes.....'' If a man talks in the forest and a woman doesn't hear him...is he still wrong.?'' Lolz....!! :)

Of course it still makes a sound. Just because we do not hear or see it does not effect the outcome. That is like saying if a child starves to death 2,000 miles away and we do not see it or know of it, the child never died. Too many people actually think this way. Hence, one reason why our world is as messed up as it is. Sorry for being overly serious and dramatic. The question should be: How do you know the tree fell? Perhaps some very bored person, moves the tree from spot to spot. Perhaps it's not even a tree. It may be a work of art made out of pop-cycle sticks and painted, and it's the artist moving it form spot to spot. Perhaps it may be a mass hallucination and we only think it's there.I could go on and on, but I shall stop now.

It goes into wave superposition.

One might say a sound is the perceived effect of vibration on the eardrum generated in the brain, and therefore if no one is there to perceive that sound then it can be said that no sound was heard.

However some might say sound still exits even though a person did not hear it. The physical property of sound caused by the vibration of a medium, can be detected and recorded electronically, and we know sound waves have a physical property and even though it may not be heard by a person it still exist.

It depends on the definition of a sound :)

Hear*

And yes - sound is a vibration. Just because humans aren't around to hear it, the fallign tree will most assuredly make a noise.

No it wouldn't. Sound is merely a wave. An ear has to interpret the wave form to make a sound heard. Now if some bunny is out there then all bets are off. The bunny's ears would pick up the sound wave

All the animals and insects will hear it, it will always be heard by something.

No, because there is no one around to pick up the sound wave, when it bounces. Sound is but perception.

yes

Yes, but there needs to be an ear to pick up the sound.

Regardless the tree still falls and a object moving with velocity will make sound when it impacts regardless if anyone is around to hear it or not.